


Flashing Back

by OmnipresentNuance



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftermath, Flashbacks, Gen, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 59,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22164961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmnipresentNuance/pseuds/OmnipresentNuance
Summary: Lincoln spends some individual quality time with each of his older sisters and during that time, they also recall instances of circumstances that happened after various events in their lives.
Kudos: 5





	1. A Shared Affinity for Music

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings. What I present to you today is what I hope will be a neat one-shot collection centering around a central universal theme.
> 
> All right, so how this will operate is that each chapter has a wraparound story in it and in between said story will consist of three flashbacks, each of which are generally either aftermaths of episodes or follow up scenes of certain moments of select episodes, hence why I'll be labeling them as "aftermath flashbacks". The first five chapters will showcase Lincoln with one of his older sisters each and then there will be three more to wrap things that all take place within a single day's span. Additionally, with the exception of those latter three, none of first five chapters are set in any sort of chronological order. They're basically stand alone stories with no direct connection to each other. Finally, even though this is centered around Lincoln and his older sisters, the younger sisters will make various appearances here and there, just not as the focus.
> 
> Okay, so first up, we kick things off with the one that started this whole concept in the first place. What you're about to read was initially meant to be a one-shot by itself, but I liked the concept I feature in this so much that I expanded it beyond just one in the form of this collection you'll be seeing in the coming weeks. This first one will feature Luna and the flashbacks will be based on "Kick the Bucket List", "For Bros About to Rock", and "Yes Man".
> 
> With all that explaining out of the way, I'll let you read on!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

Saturday afternoons over at the Loud house are an oftentimes lively affair and today was no different.

At the moment, Lincoln was laying in bed inside his room attempting to get into a brand new comic of his, but the aforementioned ruckus was making it a chore to do so. The commotion going on just beyond the doorway befitted the apropos surname of the family and normally he wouldn't mind the chaos. Yet on special occasions such as reading new comics, it would be a boon for him to get something resembling some peace and quiet.

Groaning slightly in annoyance, Lincoln got off from his bed, new comic at hand, and set forth to discover a quieter locale optimal for reading. He stepped out of his room, passing by most of his sisters doing their various noisy antics as he crossed the hallway and trekked down the stairs.

Things at the ground floor were hardly that much more tranquil, so Lincoln continued onward through the dining room and kitchen before opting to head on out to the backyard.

The second Lincoln stepped foot outside and shut the back door, he felt a calming sense of relief. The cacophony inside the house faded fast as he appeared to find the right venue to dive into his comic.

However, a quick glimpse showed that he wasn't the only one using the backyard for his own purposes.

Sitting right underneath the tree was Luna, her eyes shut as she was softly strumming away on her acoustic guitar, all while humming a gentle tune. The serenity of it all stood in profound contrast to everything else Lincoln was seeking to keep away from for the time being.

Letting a smile come across him, Lincoln stepped down the small set of stairs that lead into the backyard and made a course for where Luna was situated. While his initial goal was to find a location where he could read his comic alone and in peace, he now couldn't see any reason that would prevent him from sharing in the outdoor tranquility alongside his musical big sister.

"Hi there, Luna." Lincoln greeted, taking a seat to the right side of her.

Luna paused her guitar playing, opened her eyes and turned her gaze to Lincoln, smiling warmly at the arrival of her little bro.

"Yo, Lincoln." She said in a very relaxed manner, "What brings you out here?"

"Oh, just trying to get some time away from our loud family, pardon the pun, so I can read my newest comic." Lincoln replied just as coolly as she had just spoke, "Mind if I join you in doing so?"

Luna nodded, "Looks like you've already done so, but sure thing, little bro. I can relate to the sitch you're in. That's why I came out here myself. Too much commotion can throw me off my rockin' motion, know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I pick up what you are laying down, sis." Lincoln said, flashing an assured grin, which got a chortle from Luna for both that and the statement that very much sounded like something she would say.

"Hmm, now where could you have gotten that one from, bro?" She contemplated humorously, followed by giving him a self-aware wink.

Lincoln laughed briefly as he opened up his comic and picked up where he left before he went about finding a quieter refuge, while Luna resumed in strumming along.

During the few minutes that would pass by, Luna would get a case of curiosity looking back over at her little bro, seeing him so taken in and absorbed with his comic.

"Say, not that it's really any of my biz or anything, but whatcha readin' there, Linc?" She inquired.

Lincoln looked at his big sister, amazed that she was asking about the comic he was reading. Except for the one he entered for the Ace Savvy contest where he featured versions of them as superheroines alongside his own interpretation of Ace, none of his sisters shared any real interest in his comics, so to hear even the slightest curious inquiry came as a pleasant surprise.

"Oh..uh, well, it's a crossover featuring my two favorite characters, Ace Savvy and Muscle Fish, where they team up to take on a hybrid of a mutant turtle and the Card Shark, the latter of which is one of Ace's arch villains." He said.

Luna showed a confused tilt of her head, but also grinned, "Okay...sounds a little out there, but hey, that's comics for ya. Nevertheless, you seem to be diggin' it and who am I to judge? After all, if you're into it, that's all that matters."

Upon Luna saying that, Lincoln gave her an appreciative smile. Hearing her subtly suggest that it may not be something she'd be into, but to also acknowledge his own interest of it without resorting to mockery or accusations of being a geek, nerd or dork was very gratifying. A number of his other sisters had often dismissed his love of comics, including Luna for that matter, again aside from the aforementioned contest. But at the very least in this instance, she was more mellow and accepting of it, even when he was reading right next to her as she was in the middle of her guitar playing.

A little more time had passed as Lincoln got further along in the comic. But then, a sudden bout of chuckling from Luna caught his attention.

"What's so funny, Luna?" He asked.

"Oh, it's nothing, dude." Luna responded, trailing off in her chuckling, "But if you really want to know, you mentioning that turtle critter thing kind of reminded me of your own 'turtle on a shell' incident."

"Huh, what now? I have no idea what you're talking about." Lincoln said, completely confounded in what his sister was referencing.

"You know, the time I caught you having that jam session in the garage? The one you claimed was a 'you and Clyde thing', even though Clyde wasn't there?" Luna explained.

"Oh, right, that one." Lincoln said, come off sounding a bit ashamed, "The one where I kind of brushed you off at the time."

"True that, bro." Luna acknowledged with a small nod, "Though you did try to make up for it immediately last I remembered..."

* * *

_Lincoln had found himself in quite the predicament. His little jam session came to an abrupt halt when he tipped over and was now stuck up in the air a bit all thanks to the drum strapped onto his back. He struggled in vain to regain his footing, but nothing was doing._

_In a moment of quick thinking though, he managed to catch Luna in the corner of his eye as she was almost about to head back inside their house after she had begun leaving when she tried joining in on her little brother's jam session, only to be told it was 'him and Clyde thing'. At this rate, she was his only reliable method of assistance right now._

" _Uh, Luna, can I get hand here?" Lincoln called out to her._

_Luna turned around just as she about to round the corner at the end of the driveway and saw her brother's self-induced quandary, rolling her eyes and sighing. Even thought she felt rather dejected in being denied an opportunity to jam out with him, she nonetheless didn't want to leave him hanging._

_B_ _reathing a sigh of_ _relief, Lincoln witnessed Luna make her way back over to him. She stood in front of her brother, grabbed onto his wrists and pulled him up in one swift motion. She also took it upon herself to undo the drum off his back, likely to prevent such a calamity befalling him again._

" _Whew! Thanks, Luna." Lincoln said in ease._

_Rather than express her own pleasure in helping him out at the moment, Luna instead chose to press her little brother further on what he was doing just prior to his plight._

" _Okay, what's the deal here, Lincoln?" She asked him somewhat sternly, "You say that this was a 'you and Clyde thing', but unless I've gone blind or Clyde's gone into hiding or turned invisible, I don't see him anywhere. Care to give me a bit of a lowdown?_

_Lincoln sighed, but then acquiesced to her request, "Okay, I'll explain things. During Christmas break, Clyde and I came up with this huge list of things we wanted to do over spring break. However, he and his dads went on vacation to Hawaii the past eight days before today, so we only had one day to do everything on the list. Realizing that, we decided to split the list in half and each do some of those things by ourselves. So yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it."_

_He brought forward a sheepish grin on his face once he finished his explanation. In response, Luna raised her eyebrow, but then casually shrugged._

" _Um...all right then, bro. You...keep on rockin', I suppose." She said somewhat disappointed._

_With a light sigh, Luna turned around and again was going to leave Lincoln be. But seeing her like that was making him feel guilty and at this moment in time, he wanted to at least make her not feel she was unneeded right now._

" _Wait, hold on a moment, Luna." He said while catching up to her._

_She paused in her tracks and turned to face her brother again as he came back up to her._

" _Look, even though this was something I had originally planned for me and Clyde, I don't want to make it seem like I'm pushing you away." Lincoln said regretfully, "So, I guess what I'm saying is...wanna jam with me?"_

_Within milliseconds, his sister's tune changed completely and a confident smile formed while she pointed at him with both hands._

" _Now you're speakin' my language, little bro!" Luna stated proudly, "Hang on while get my axe and then we'll be rockin' and a-rollin'!"_

_Like a flash, Luna bolted into the house and in matter of seconds, she made a grand return with her guitar in her possession by leaping up and landing while striking an emphatic chord._

" _YEAH!" She shouted with much mirth._

_Finishing off her entrance, Luna sighed contently before she turned to Lincoln again and gave him an appreciative pat_ _on his head_ _as her way of saying thanks for allowing her to jam with him, even when it wasn't what he originally planned out, but certainly not something he didn't want to get as much enjoyment out of in any event._

* * *

"I learned a very valuable lesson that day." Lincoln said, looking back up at Luna, "While jam sessions can be fun by yourself, they're even better with a partner. Especially when that partner in question is someone who knows what they're doing musically."

Luna smiled, "Aw, you're took kind, Lincoln. But you know, to paraphrase what Mick Swagger and myself have said before with regards to rock 'n' roll: it's about having fun no matter how good you are."

Both of them shared a laugh before they returned to their respective activities: Luna with her guitar and Lincoln with his comic. But a few short moments later, Luna again took a pause in guitar playing as she had something else in mind.

"You know something, bro?" She inquired.

"Hmm?" Lincoln verbalized as he once more looked at Luna.

"I've realized that quite often music brings us close together. You're pretty much the only sibling of mine that seems to get a kick out of jamming out as I do. I mean, on occasion some of our sisters may listen or jam along with me, but they don't seem to get as much out of it as you do, Linc." Luna explained.

Lincoln looked on contemplatively, then he grinned, "You know, I think you're right, Luna. We always have a great time whenever music is brought into the picture. Now that you mention it, I'd say one of the best examples was when you made my first concert seeing SMOOCH one of the best nights of my life."

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that." Luna agreed with a joyful smile, "But if you ask me, the only thing that was just as good was what you did for me when we came back home later on that evening..."

* * *

_Within the living room of the Loud house, a sense that mixed concern and chafe had consumed most of the Loud sisters. Earlier, Luna had set off for the mall to get Lincoln out of the shopping center's jail after he and Clyde were arrested for purchasing scalped tickets from an undercover mall cop. But that was over two and a half hours ago and without any response from her, everyone was collectively vexed._

" _Man, what's taking them so long? Is it that much of a hassle to bust someone out of mall jail?" Lana asked out loud._

" _Either that, or maybe Lincoln did manage to make it to the concert and Luna somehow conned her way into going with him anyway." Lynn said, making everyone around her groan over that possibility._

" _Ugh, you know what, that's perhaps the most likely explanation. Typical. Luna literally cannot help herself, can she?" Lori expressed in irritation while shaking her head._

" _Hey, I think I see them right now!" Leni shouted as she was looking out the window._

_Everyone else would huddle around the window to indeed see Luna and Lincoln walking together down the sidewalk and just about arriving at the front yard._

" _What the heck is Lincoln wearing?" Leni wondered._

" _Ick! Whatever it is, it's hideous!" Lola stated in disgust, "Looks like something Luna must have forced him to wear."_

" _Yeah, and it's probably one of many things she had to have done that made Lincoln's night a complete wreck, just like every other first concert she tagged along with us." Lori added._

" _Well, they do appear to be smiling." Luan observed, "Maybe they did have a good time."_

" _Or maybe Luna did, but Lincoln's only smiling to give the impression he did, too." Lucy said in disagreement, "This could be a facade for all we know."_

_That hypothesis from their goth sister was something everybody else seemed to take into consideration. While that occurred, Luna and Lincoln had made their way up to the front doorstep. The door opened up shortly thereafter and they stepped inside the house, where they were immediately confronted by their sisters, who all brought forth disgruntled looks on their faces directed straight at Luna._

" _Yo, dudes!" Luna said happily, but then her attitude changed quickly once she saw her sisters' unfavorable expressions, "Uh...what's with the moody vibes you're giving off?"_

" _I think you know exactly why, Luna..." Lucy responded icily._

" _Yup, you just had to ruin Lincoln's night, didn't you? Just like when you wrecked my Boyz Will Be Boyz concert." Lori said contemptuously._

" _And our Blarney concert!" Lana and Lola shouted in tandem._

" _Not to mention the time you felt the need to disrupt the dulcet tones of my first ever opera." Lisa stated bluntly._

_Luna felt the urge to refute the accusation of ruining Lincoln's concert experience, despite contrary evidence against it, but slouched forward a bit in defeat over being reminded of her past mishaps. However, Lincoln wasn't going to stand hearing such disparaging remarks._

" _Whoa, whoa, hold on, you guys!" He said, waving his hands, "Luna didn't actually-"_

_Lynn put a hand over Lincoln's mouth before he could go further and did her imitative buzzer noise._

" _Lincoln, put a cork in it. You don't need to make excuses for Luna making your concert experience miserable." She said._

" _But she-" Lincoln tried to get out, but would get interrupted again._

" _No, Lincoln!" Leni interjected unexpectedly, "If she acted irresponsibly like we suspect she did, there's no reason to come to her defense."_

" _Really now, brah? You_ _of all people are_ _gonna lecture me on r_ _esponsibility_ _?" Luna questioned, taking a moment to raise her head up from her slouched stature._

" _Well, when it comes to musical concerts, you do cymbal-ize some bad times." Luan jokingly said, "Get it? But seriously, your previous track record does kind of speak for itself..."_

_Luna groaned over both the pun and again being told she some sort of serial concert wrecker, but again couldn't muster up the courage to defend herself much. As the sisters kept on piling on her verbally, Lincoln had finally heard enough._

" _Hey, will you all be quiet and lay off of her?!" He yelled in frustration._

_In an instant, everyone ceased speaking and came off shocked to hear their only brother's ire and he was only just getting started._

" _Now listen up and get this through your thick skulls. Luna. Did. NOT. Ruin. Any. Thing! In fact, she made tonight one of the best experiences of my life. Now granted, she did come off a bit too overzealous at first and I did go off on her because of it, but had it not been for her, Clyde and I would have been stuck way up in the cheap seats unable to see much of anything. But thanks to her, not only did we get all the way down to the front, but the band even invited us on stage with them!"_

_Lincoln took a brief moment to pause as placed a hand on Luna's back, then he continued on, albeit this time a lot less aggressively._

" _You guys were completely wrong about Luna here. While I can't speak for your own experiences and perhaps she did hamper things like you've suggested earlier to me, I'd say that she doesn't tag along to first concerts of ours in order to wreck them, but because she loves music so much and wants share that passion of hers with us. Is that so wrong of her to do? May I remind you it was her own experience of seeking Mick Swagger perform for the first time that made her the rock 'n' roll girl we all know and love today. That was an unforgettable night for her and all she ever wanted to do for me was help make my own first concert experience unforgettable as well, and if you ask me, she succeeded more than I could've ever imagined and I cannot thank her enough."_

_To conclude his heartfelt defense of Luna, Lincoln tightly wrapped his arms around her waist, then he stood up on his toes so he could also give her a quick kiss on her cheek, making her feel even more moved by her little bro than she already was. This as all their sisters watched on feeling both pleased to hear Lincoln credit Luna for his ostensibly memorable night, but also guilty for being so quick pointing the proverbial accusatory finger at her for supposedly ruining things when Lincoln had now proven otherwise._

_Letting go of Luna's waist, Lincoln began marching up the stairs, but then stopped halfway through and turned to face everyone again._

" _Oh, and by the way, how come Luna was the only one who came down to get me and Clyde out of mall jail? Didn't see any of you come along with her. Eh, you must have all had more important things to deal with then, I suppose..." He stated, a little more curtly than when he last spoke._

_He continued onward up the stairs, all while his sisters jointly issued apologies to him for everything, but right now Lincoln wasn't really having any of it, so they then directed their apologies to Luna instead._

_When he reached the top, Lincoln took a deep breath to try relieving some of the tension that had built up during the instance he told off everyone. Adrenaline was rushing through him and causing trembles throughout his body. Though he felt like he needed to vent his frustrations out, it appeared to affect him more than he had intended to do so._

_As Lincoln attempted to go over to his room in order to calm himself down so more, he felt a pair of arms hug him from behind just as he gripped onto the door knob. He turned around to see that it was Luna who had her clutches around him as she was also looking down at him with a couple of tears welling up in her eyes._

" _Lincoln...thank you for what you said back down there. You didn't have to do that, though." Luna said to him, sniffling a tiny bit in the process._

" _Well, maybe I didn't have to, but I wanted to." Lincoln said back, putting both his hands on Luna's shoulders, "I wasn't going to stand there and let you be accused of ruining concerts on purpose, which is the furthest thing from the truth in my case. You truly made mine unforgettable and there is no one else I'd rather would've have by my side tonight to help enhance the experience than you. Thank you so much, Luna."_

_Following those words of appreciation, Lincoln hugged Luna again and nuzzled against her shoulder. With a grateful smile coming across her face, she likewise placed her arms back around him and fondly hugged him reciprocally._

" _Aw, you're welcome, little bro. Making your first concert as rockin' as I could was all I ever wanted to do and it means the world to me that you feel that I delivered in that respect." Luna said, brimming in sisterly pride._

_While staying within their shared embrace, Lincoln peered just to the side of Luna to see their sisters looking on from the stairway, each of them smiling at the heartwarming scene before them. He smiled back in their direction, as did Luna when she also turned on over to face them as well, both likely as a signal that everything was forgiven between them all._

* * *

"If you ask me, Linc, that was one of the sweetest things you've ever done for me, coming to my defense and all." Luna said, looking over at her brother with a broad smile.

"It was my pleasure, Luna." Lincoln said in response, "I meant every word of it then and still do now."

Emitting a small laugh in admiration, Luna put her guitar to the side and brought an arm around Lincoln so she could draw him closer to her. Just as that happened, Lincoln in turn put his comic aside, allowing his sister to pull him in her direction freely. He then rested the back of his head on her shoulder as they both sighed contently in this new relaxing position they found themselves in, all while a gentle breeze blew along, adding to the pleasantness of the scene.

"You know, on the subject of concerts and sweetness, I think I know one thing that can top that instance we just discussed." Lincoln suggested.

"Oh, do you now? Well, lay it on me then, bro." Luna said while grinning, eager to hear what he was about to share.

Lincoln softly chuckled, "Well, it all started after a certain 'master of convincing' had a hard day's work, but was unable to persuade his parents to get him a VIP SMOOCH concert ticket, only to then be given the next best thing by his sisters, one who deserved particular kudos, and afterwards he wanted to show that one sister his utmost gratitude..."

* * *

_Tonight had been one of the greatest nights of Lincoln's life. After being initially crestfallen over his inability to attend the VIP SMOOCH concert he was gearing up for after his parents ended up being depleted of funds, he rejoiced over something just as amazing._

_As a way of expressing their most sincere appreciation for all he did in helping them convince their parents to give them the money for their individual needs, Lincoln's sisters put on their own concert for him in which they deemed him both their "VIB" or "very important brother" and "the best dang brother anywhere around" through the song they performed._

_But if that wasn't enough, Lincoln was stunned that his sisters even managed to get SMOOCH themselves to arrive and perform alongside them. Plus, his friends Clyde, Liam and Zach had been invited to attend as well. All in all, tonight was nothing short of a thriving success._

_At the moment, Lincoln had just exchanged goodbyes with his friends and then headed back inside the house, where some of his sisters were hanging around in the living room still decked out in the SMOOCH inspired garb they wore for their performance. In this case, it was his older sisters, as it was likely the younger sisters had gone off to bed almost as soon as the concert wrapped up due to how late at night it was getting._

" _Hey, Lincoln, how'd you like the concert?" Lynn asked him._

" _It was unreal! It was unbelievable! It was...it was…!" Lincoln stated jovially, but started trailing off and laughing nervously, as he was so excited that finding the right words started becoming difficult for him._

" _I take it you enjoyed it, then?" Lori suggested with a chuckle._

_Lincoln laughed nervously again, "Yeah, uh...let's go with that."_

_He approached his sisters more closely and shared in a group hug with them._

" _Aw, we're so glad to hear that, Lincoln!" Leni said happily, "After all you've done to help us, it was the least we could do."_

" _Well, thank you guys so much for doing this." Lincoln said after parting ways from the hug, "I can't believe you managed all of this in such a short amount of time, too."_

" _Actually, if you ask me, you should really be thanking Luna more than anyone." Luan said._

" _Yeah, I'd say so, too." Lynn added in agreement, "This may have been a team effort from all of us, but pretty much everything was her idea from the start."_

_Leni nodded emphatically, "It totes was! From the costumes, the instruments, to who got to play what, the song itself..."_

" _Not to mention convincing SMOOCH themselves to arrive. We literally didn't think there was a chance they would actually come over, but we were thrilled when they did. I guess you could say the abilities of a certain master of convincing managed to rub off onto Luna for that to happen." Lori said, adding a wink directed at her brother at the end._

_Lincoln couldn't help but feel so touched at the moment. He was already so thankful for all his sisters doing this for him, but knowing now that Luna was the one who really got things rolling made him realize he owed a particularly special debt of gratitude toward her._

_Amid all this, Lincoln also just only now noticed that Luna wasn't actually present among everyone else._

" _Hey, where is Luna anyway?" He asked as he looked around._

" _She should be up in our room right now." Luan answered while pointing upward._

_As soon as he learned of her whereabouts, Lincoln immediately set a brisk pace upstairs and arrived at Luna and Luan's bedroom. The door had been left wide open to show Luna putting her guitar away in its case._

_Before she could do anything else after that, Luna would get a mild startle when she felt a pair of arms tightly encircle her waist. She looked over to see Lincoln being the one initiating such emphatic action with a big smile on his face._

" _Oh, well hey there, little bro!" Luna expressed with surprise, "How did you like the-"_

_She couldn't finish her sentence because Lincoln would then reach upward and started kissing her on the cheek a half dozen times. A light blush formed across her face during and upon conclusion of such affection from her brother._

" _Heh...w-what was that for, Linc?" Luna asked, a nervous yet sweet smile taking shape on her lips as she also rubbed the cheek that had been kissed on._

" _Smooches for the best sister ever!" Lincoln answered very happily._

_Luna chuckled as turned around to fully face Lincoln._

" _So, I'm guessing the concert was a righteous hit with you, huh?" She asked._

" _And then some!" Lincoln shouted merrily, "And I owe it all to you!"_

_Luna started blushing again and laughed nervously, "Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far. I mean, it was a group effort from all our sisters, so I really can't take all the credit. They put in as much work into this as I did."_

" _Yeah, but I got done talking to some of them and they told me that this whole concert was really all your idea. I appreciate all of them for this, but now knowing you're the brains behind it, I harbor the most gratitude towards you more than anyone." Lincoln said._

_To show his appreciation in full, Lincoln reached up and gave Luna another, more emphatic kiss on her cheek, then snuggled his head along her chest while hugging her again. Luna smiled as she was more than willing to return the hug with as much vigor as he did._

_However, her smile shifted over to a frown when she began hearing her brother sniffling softly. She pulled away a bit to see small tears bubbling up in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks._

" _Aw, hey now, dude. This shouldn't be a time for tears." Luna said concernedly._

_Lincoln sniffled lightly and let the tiniest of smiles take shape, "I suppose not, but I'm just so happy right now. Not that I needed more evidence to prove it, but tonight made me realize how valued I am to you guys. To think you and all our sisters did this just for me...I don't know how I'll ever thank you enough for it."_

" _It was the least we could do, bro." Luna said, cupping his face with both hands, "We felt t_ _errible_ _after you couldn't be able see SMOOCH again because our 'rents ran out of dough. But because you did so much in helping us convince them to shed enough green for our own needs, there was no way we were gonna leave you hangin', so we had to do something so rad in return. You mean so much to us, Lincoln. You truly are our very most important, best dang brother we could ever ask for, anywhere around, period."_

_His heart swelling with some much raw emotion over being told that, Lincoln buried his face back against Luna's chest and wept, but entirely out of joy. In return, she hugged her little bro with as much sisterly admiration as she could summon forth._

" _I-I love you, Luna..." Lincoln said softly during a pause in weeping._

" _I love you, too, Lincoln." Luna responded in kind, "So, so much love for you, little brother."_

_She gave him her own meaningful kiss on his cheek, then resumed in holding him close to her, letting him pour out his emotions. Nothing in the world meant more to her, or a_ _ll of the_ _sisters for that matter, than this young thoughtful boy who selflessly sacrificed his own concert experience,_ _albeit unwittingly, so he could allow_ _his sisters have their things and in return, they expressed their own deep admiration for him in the form of putting on a rocking performance that he'll never forget._ _It's been a night that'll forever be etched in their loving hearts._

* * *

"You're right, bro, that too was a very sweet moment." Luna said, "But instead of comparing and contrasting, let's say both of those were equally sweet and call it even, all right?"

A few seconds went by and no response from Lincoln.

"Lincoln?"

Luna looked down at her brother and realized that he dozed off soundly on her shoulder.

"Huh, who knew reminiscing on musical memories can make a little dude so sleepy?" She said to herself jokingly.

In actuality, what really may have caused Lincoln to nod off was perhaps the sheer peacefulness of the outdoor sanctuary both of them had sought earlier and in that sense, Luna couldn't blame him.

Since she had no plans of her own involving going back inside herself anytime soon, and the fact that she wanted her little bro to be more comfy, Luna ever so gently lifted Lincoln up onto her lap and let him rest against her with the side of his head snugly placed alongside her chest. This act of repositioning did cause him to stir awake a little.

"Huh…?" Lincoln muttered softly, then noticed his new placement, "Oh, hey Luna. Sorry, did I doze off on you?"

"Yeah, but it's not a prob, dude." Luna answered, "If you're in need of a midday snooze, then be my guest. I'm not heading anywhere myself, so I'll be here for you if need be."

Accepting this generous offer, Lincoln flashed a small smile and snuggled himself closer to his big sister's welcoming embrace as she wrapped her arms around him firmly.

As she held on to her brother, Luna closed her eyes and took in the sounds of the outdoors surrounding them: a distant wind chime, birds singing, the gentle breeze billowing on by, among other things.

Seems like in addition to music, finding infrequent spaces of relative tranquility to spend time with one another was something else Luna and Lincoln had a shared affinity for that brought them close together, both figuratively and literally in this case.

Neither of them could ask for anything more.


	2. Late Night Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! 
> 
> Before we get going with this chapter, I'd like to mention a change. Originally, I said the order of the these next few chapters for who was going to be feature was Luan, Leni, Lori and Lynn. Well, I'm announcing that Lynn's chapter will be moved up and Lori's will come after that. Although I've said that these aren't in chronological order, they are in order of how recently I came up with the story and flashbacks for them. I'm still working out some things for Lori's chapter while I have everything set for Lynn's, so that's why they're being switched around. 
> 
> Now, as you know based on the order, this one is featuring Luan and the flashbacks here are based on "April Fools Rules", "No Laughing Matter", and "A Fridge Too Far". I will say that the flashback for the last one does change around a couple of things from that episode's events, so there's that. 
> 
> All right, onward!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

A fairly standard day had come and gone at the Loud house. Now at 10:00 PM, things were much more quieter with most everyone finishing up their nightly rituals prior to heading off to bed.

For Lincoln, as he was taking one last look over a few things on his laptop, he had a particularly busy day. However, there was one niggling thing that he couldn't help but ponder over in that time.

All day long, Lincoln interacted thoroughly with everyone in his family, but the one notable exception was Luan. For every brief time he ran into his fourth oldest sister, she would cut short any conversation by saying she was busy with something and never really elaborated as to what she'd been working on. The only extended period she and Lincoln were really around one other was during dinnertime, but still she didn't divulge as to what had been preoccupying her throughout the day.

Nevertheless, even without that mystery solved, Lincoln still got himself ready for bed. He was almost about to shut off his laptop when he heard a light rapping on his bedroom door.

"Hey, Lincoln? You still up?"

He turned in the direction of the door and after hearing that voice, he was surprised to know it was Luan inquiring from the other side.

"Um, yeah..." Lincoln answered after a bit of pause.

"Mind if I come in for a little while?" Luan asked.

"Oh, uh...not at all." Lincoln said, his curiosity rising.

The doorknob turned and the door itself swung open to reveal Luan, who then shut the door behind her in order to give herself and Lincoln maximum privacy.

"So. what's going on, Luan?"

"Well, you've probably been wondering why it seemed like I've been sort of avoiding you most of the day." Luan said, rubbing the back of her neck as she sounded kind of apologetic, "Actually, I don't think that's the best way to word things, but I wouldn't blame you if that's the impression you got."

Lincoln shook his head in disagreement, "Oh, not at all, Luan. I mean, I did find it a little strange, but I wasn't thinking you were trying to stay away from me."

"Well, that's good to hear." Luan said with a sigh of relief, "But to be upfront, the only reason I was spending so little time with you today was because I'd been hard at work on a little surprise that I didn't want to spoil until showing you right now.'

"Oh, really? What kind of surprise?" Lincoln asked, now his curiosity really getting to him.

Having only just now noticing that Luan had one hand behind her back, Lincoln looked on as she brought that very hand around and showed a flash drive within her palm.

"What's that? I mean, I know it's a flash drive obviously, but what's it for?" Lincoln wondered.

"I'll explain in a second." Luan replied while grinning, "First, why don't you bring your laptop over and we'll sit down together in your bed?"

As she proceeded to do her part regarding the latter suggestion, Lincoln went along and took as laptop off his dresser, bringing it with him while taking a seat alongside Luan as he awaited what his sister had in store for him.

"So again, what's the deal here with this flash drive?" Lincoln asked once more.

"All right, so to first explain what I've been doing for the better part of the day, I was putting some comedy props of mine away up in the attic and as I did that, I came across a box containing some old home movies of ours." Luan said, showing off the flash drive more prominently, "So to make a long and complicated story short, I spent the day converting some portions of those home movies on to this flash drive so we can watch them together."

"Huh, so that's what been going on this whole time? And that's why you're here now? Is there some kind of catch to all of this?" Lincoln questioned his sister.

"Not in the slightest, Lincoln. We're not marionettes, so there's no _strings attached_ here." Luan answered with her trademark laughter, "Get it? But seriously, all I wanted to do was show these off with you before bed."

Lincoln looked a little confused at first, but eventually he smiled, "Okay, sure, I guess we can do that."

Smiling back at her brother, Luan handed him the flash drive and he plugged it in to his laptop. He opened up the window that popped up once it had been put in and scrolled to a folder titled "Happy Memories with a Pint-Sized Lincoln". He stifled a bemused chuckle and double-clicked the folder which showed to contain three video files.

"Huh, that's not a whole lot." Lincoln observed.

"Just enough for tonight." Luan explained, "I saved a whole lot more on my own laptop, which itself was a lot work."

Before they went any further, Luan pulled up the sleeves of her pajama top and flexed her arms, showing off what little muscles were there.

"Speaking of work, I also had to haul down that box of home movies down from the attic and back up again once I was through. It felt kinda like a workout in a sense. You could say I'm kind of a film _buff_ in that sense." She joked and laughed over.

Lincoln rolled his eyes amusingly, "Let's just hope these videos are more entertaining than those last couple of puns."

With that, he clicked on the first video, titled "Lincoln's First Ever Just Desserts on April Fools' Day."

"Oh, boy..." Lincoln said with a slight hint of dread.

"Ah, come on now. It'll be cute, just like you were at the date of this one!" Luan told him with quick rub of his head.

Lincoln smiled just slightly before he clicked "play" on the video player so he and Luan could begin watching.

In this video, it was set in the living room, where Lincoln at around two-years-old was sitting on the floor playing around with a little ball, rolling it around back and forth and such. Seconds later, Luan entered the frame, and she would've been five-years-old in this case.

" _Look, Linky! I got you something!"_

Having said that, the younger Luan presented her then toddler brother with some sort of box. Being very excitable and easy to please at that age, Lincoln squealed happily and took it into his hands. He took the lid off and no sooner did that happen did a little pie spring out and hit him right in the face, covering his still babyish features in whipped cream.

" _April Fools, Linky!"_

While Luan clearly seemed amused with herself in this recording based on how much she was laughing, Lincoln on the other hand wasn't so much on his end as he started crying loudly.

" _Luan…!"_ An annoyed voice could be heard belonging to Rita, who was likely the one recording things hoping to capture a nice moment, only to instead witness the early burgeoning of a prankster.

"Even back then you used me as a target for April Fools Day pranks." Lincoln said so evidently, "If only the five-year-old version of you knew of the things that would materialize in that calculating mind yours in the years to come whenever that day came."

Luan giggled and patted Lincoln's shoulder, "Yeah, but as I once told you before, there's a method to the madness when I do that sort of stuff on the best holiday of the year. I remember one fairly serious talk I had with you after one of my best prank jobs to date..."

* * *

" _Uh, is this really necessary, Luan?"_

" _Why not? I think I nose what I'm doing here!"_

_The squeaking of a clown's nose can be heard shortly after that little pun and some laughter paired along with that._

" _Get it? But seriously, it's the least I can do after all you've went through today...or I put you through, rather."_

_Lincoln groaned, both from the pun, but mainly out of_ _the_ _soreness that coursed throughout his body. He had spent the early part of the day setting off a number of elaborate and painful pranks that Luan had set up all around the house for April Fools Day. He did so upon learning that Ronnie Anne was coming over and he didn't want her to be on the receiving end of such pranks. However, it_ _would end up_ _tricking him out of his original plan of barricading himself in his room for the day, leaving him no choice but to trigger the pranks and take the brunt of their effects._

_W_ _hen Ronnie Anne did arrive, it turned out she was in on things to an extent, too,_ _since it was Luan who brought her over in the first place_ _and was originally going to deliver the coup de grace in the form of a pie in the face to Lincoln. But once she learned t_ _he_ _lengths Lincoln went to make sure he set off all the pranks before she arrived and didn't fall victim to them, the dessert projectile was hurtled in Luan's direction instead._ _Following that, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne_ _set off on having a day out together._

_Unfortunately, due to aggravated, reoccurring pain from those pranks, the day was cut short and Lincoln had to be assisted back home. Upon learning the extent of his physical agony, Luan started to feel guilty about what her brother had been through and chose to help out how she can._

_Ultimately,_ _most of_ _her "help" was in the form of play acting while clad in her_ _white doctor's coat and clown nose, with the idea being adhering to the classic adage of "laughter being the best medicine". But if Lincoln's less-than-amused disposition while being laid out in bed in his room said anything, it had little effect._

" _Luan, I just have to ask: why do you do this?" Lincoln asked._

" _I already told you, Lincoln, because it's the least I can do." Luan answered quite innocently._

" _No, that's not what I meant." Lincoln said, sighing in annoyance, "I mean, why do you go to such lengths on April Fools Day like you do? It's like there is no rhyme or reason for this, including_ _with what you did_ _today."_

_Luan arched up her eyebrow, "No rhyme or reason, you say? That's what you really think?"_

_Her normally upbeat attitude was quickly replaced by that of a more s_ _erious_ _posture. She slowly took off her coat and clown nose, put them aside, took the chair sitting near by, spun it around and then sat down on it._

" _Lincoln, mind if ask you a few questions?" She asked him._

" _Uh..._ _I guess not_ _" Lincoln replied, coming off a little hesitant due to the sudden change in his sister's tone, "_ _But why_ _,_ _though_ _?"_

" _I_ _think you'll understand in a moment..._ _" Luan said with a small s_ _mile_ _, "_ _First, would you_ _go to the lengths you did for Ronnie Anne if she were in_ _actual danger as opposed to being at risk of any pranks of mine?"_

" _Uh...well, yeah, sure. I wouldn't want to see her hurt." Lincoln answered following a couple seconds of thought, "I would certainly..."_

_Just then, Lincoln took another moment in pondering what Luan was saying and in due time, it appeared to register in his mind what she was getting at._

" _W_ _ait,_ _hold on_ _..._ _are you saying that this whole thing with today's pranks...was nothing more than a test to see how far I'd go to protect Ronnie Anne?" He wondered._

_Luan nodded, "Maybe you could say that. Now, would you also do the same for anyone else close to you, like our sisters?"_

" _Yeah, of course." Lincoln said more assuredly._

" _...Including me?"_

_F_ _or a moment, Lincoln was little shocked to hear Luan single herself out_ _like that_ _in her line of questioning, but he seemed to understand what she was trying to have him do._

" _Luan, you become some kind of cunning, conniving_ _madwoman of a prankster whenever this particular day comes and I'll admit to becom_ _ing_ _a bit scared, perhaps even more than a little miffed in addition when that occurs..." He started out saying._

_For her part, Luan chuckled embarrassingly, not really disagreeing with her brother's characterization of her during this time of year, but based how he was building up to things, she smiled and awaited the conclusion of his thought._

" _But still, you're my sister and I'd never want_ _to ever see you in real, mortal danger, so yeah, I'd definitely be there should something happen or might be about to happen to you." Lincoln said, smiling with total confidence._

_The smile on Luan's face only got bigger when she heard that. She would then reach out and took a hold of Lincoln's hand with her own and patted his with her other hand._

" _I'm really glad to hear that, Lincoln." She said proudly, "I know that you're my little brother and usually I'm supposed to be looking out for you, but it means a lot that you'll do the same for me should that ever happen."_

" _Anytime, Luan." Lincoln said with sincerity, "So, with that being said, was there anything else you going to ask me?"_

" _Ah, yes, there was." Luan responded as she let go of Lincoln's hand, "_ _I like to know your honest opinion of Ronnie Anne. Do you like her as friend or is there something more going on?"_

" _Oh, well, um...okay." Lincoln said while nervously chuckling._

_He took a deep breath as he tried to materialize the right words in his mind. He hoped whatever he said would be considered an acceptable answer in Luan's estimation._

" _Well...I_ _do like her, but really just as a friend right now and nothing more. She can, however, get on my nerves, too. She's sometimes a little too rude, obnoxious and rough for my likening. So...that's what I think. Hope that, you know, doesn't disappoint you, 'cause I know you and our sisters seem so intent on me and her going beyond just being friends." Lincoln expressed directly, though laced with some worry._

" _No, it's okay. I asked for your honest opinion of her and_ _you delivered on that_ _." Luan assured him, "And even I'll admit_ _that we've probably pressured you too hard in having you kiss her at first, so if it turns out you just stay friends, that's fine, certainly with me at least. That should be your decision, not ours. It might take longer for someone like Lori perhaps to accept that, since she seems to act like her own relationship with Bobby is heavily dependent on you and Ronnie Anne being on good terms."_

_Lincoln laughed, "Yeah, it kind of looks like that. She went absolutely nuts on me that one time when she found out I said some nasty things about Ronnie Anne behind her back which lead Bobby to temporarily break up with her."_

" _That was w_ _hen_ _she made you go on that double date_ _afterwards_ _, wasn't it?" Luan asked._

" _Yeah, it was. I admit to not liking that arrangement too much at the time and even still now, but I guess it had to be done at least so that Lori could no longer be enraged at me and sad for not being with Bobby." Lincoln said._

" _I bet it was difficult to go through. Sometimes I think Lori is like a geyser in that she's calm and dormant one minute, the next she'll erupt at a moment's notice." Luan said with a little laugh, "But anyway, the fact you still went along with everything just to make her feel better shows what a good, selfless heart you have, Lincoln, on top of what you did triggering most of the pranks before Ronnie Anne arrived and the fact that you would come to her aid if she really were in danger, as well as for me or our sisters, too."_

_Lincoln smiled big time in satisfaction and in spite of a sudden jolt in pain that came over him as he shifted his positioning a little. For all her faults during this dreaded holiday, Luan showed that at least on this particular instance, she did appear to have a broader point_ _she wanted to prove to Lincoln in association with her pranks. She can be cunning and conniving like he already described her as, but she was also incredibly insightful and that's something Lincoln can never take away from her._

" _Thanks, Luan." He said appreciatively, "I have to say that while your little doctor's act didn't really do much_ _for me_ _, having this talk of ours does seem to make me feel kind of better, if not physically at least on the inside."_

_Luan grinned as she reached over to pat her brother's_ _shoulder, "I can certainly take that as progress, and with that, I should let you get some rest. Hope you'll get better soon."_

_S_ _he sat up from the chair and put_ _it_ _back next to the wall. Next, she gathered up her clown nose and doctor's coat, the latter of which she s_ _lung_ _over her shoulder and with everything at had, she began to leave, but she turned back over to Lincoln before stepping out the door._

" _Oh, before I go, Lincoln, I'm gonna let you ponder over this. Ronnie Anne knew a heck of a lot more about all that went on today than just me telling her to come on over. I'll let you figure out just how much she knew." Luan addressed her brother with some parting tittering._

_As she closed the door and let him be, Lincoln looked on in confusion, but still couldn't help but chuckle a tiny bit._

" _Wow, she really does go above and beyond on this day, huh?"_

* * *

"You know, since it's been brought up, did any of our sisters know about anything that occurred that day?" Lincoln asked.

Luan chuckled derisively, "No, of course not! They'd be too scared to find out and even if they weren't, and with that one exception with Ronnie Anne in that case, I never let anyone in on what I'm planning, not a peep. Or even a quack, since I want to keep all my _ducks_ in a row!"

"All right, all right, enough meditations over April Fools Day stuff. How we just move on to that next home movie clip of yours?" Lincoln suggested after a sigh.

"Fine by me." Luan replied with a shrug, "Ooh, this one's gonna be good!"

Taking a look at the title of the next video file, which was "Beginnings of a Stand-Up Genius", Lincoln laughed with a scoff added in.

"Not exactly the most humble of titles there." He said ever so pointedly.

"What? Nothing wrong with a little embellishment." Luan countered with while playfully smiling.

With another humorous roll of his eyes, Lincoln clicked on the file and it began playing.

Here, the setting was now the backyard, as Luan, being seven-years-old in this instance, was standing on top of a makeshift stage holding a hairbrush like a microphone. Watching on in the foreground were her family, specifically Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn, Lincoln and even a little one-year-old Lucy sitting in the lap of Rita, which deduced that Lynn Sr. was the one recording this time around.

Throughout the video, Luan was doing what amounted to one of her earliest known stand-up acts. Even for her age at the time, she demonstrated an ability to set up jokes and deliver punch lines quite well. Not every joke landed as to be expected, and some of her sisters weren't exactly shy in engaging in booing and other forms of displeasure, namely Lori, Luna and Lynn. But one little fellow didn't like what he was hearing.

" _Hey, stop being mean to her!"_

Standing up and turning to his sisters, four-year-old Lincoln shot a glare at them, something he wasn't typically accustomed in doing at the time.

" _Now, now, Lincoln…"_ Lynn Sr. could be heard telling his only son, _"I'm sure your sisters aren't trying to be_ _mean or anything like that. Besides, if Luan really wants to be a comedienne someday, she has to learn that not everyone will find everything she says to be funny. Better to hear that from us_ _in order_ _to get her used to it than from total strangers."_

While Lincoln didn't like hearing that, he still sat back down and let Luan finish up with her set. As soon as the performance wrapped up, he sprang back up to his feet and clapped enthusiastically.

" _Yay!"_

Back in the present, Luan went into a brief giggle fit at the four-year-old version of Lincoln's cheeriness.

"No matter what I said or did back then, I always managed to get a laugh out of you." She said, patting her brother on the back, "I don't know if it's simply because you were so much younger at that point and were easier to please, but it made me happy that you loved much of my material then. But times sure have changed in the years to come..."

Lincoln laughed and smiled a little smugly, "Hey, when I get older, that means you have to work harder to earn those laughs. Still, you do manage get some out of me and that should tell you how talented and funny you really are."

"Aw, that means a lot, Lincoln." Luan said as she put an arm around him and lightly squeezed him affectionately, "I'm always glad whenever someone tells me when I'm funny. That's all I ever want to hear and knowing that means I'm doing my job in bringing laughs and smiles to whomever I'm around, including those who I care about the most. To think there was ever a time that I doubted myself that I wasn't able to be funny."

"Oh no, I think I know what you're referencing..." Lincoln expressed uneasily, "I know I played a role in that unfortunate moment in your life, and our sisters, too."

Luan brought her brother a little closer to her, "Hey, don't worry too much about it. I know you or everyone else didn't mean to sound so harsh. But I was glad you all helped me regain my confidence in comedy again. Speaking of playing your part, you did more than any in helping out, even if you didn't mean it in the manner you did as you told me later on..."

* * *

_One afternoon, Lincoln was strolling along the hallway upstairs, when he heard some very hysterical laughter._

_He stopped near where the laughter was coming from. Taking a peek inside Luna and Luan's room since the door was barely left open, he saw Luan in her bed looking through what appeared to be one of her joke notebooks._

" _Luan?" Lincoln inquired to her, poking his head through the door._

" _Oh, hey Lincoln." Luan responded, taking a second to recoup with a deep breath, "Sorry, was I bothering you with my laughing?"_

_Lincoln shook his head, "No, not at all. But since I'm here, mind if I come in for a moment?"_

" _Sure, come right on in." Luan affirmed, waving him in._

_Having permission granted, Lincoln walked inside and took a seat on his sister's bed._

" _So, what were you laughing about just now?" He asked._

" _Oh, I was looking over on one of my joke notebooks." Luan said, holding up that notebook in question. "Man, this one in particular has plenty of zingers! I can't believe I nearly got rid of these and all my other comedy props and such, too."_

_Coincidentally enough, that was in relation to something Lincoln wished to briefly talk about. Days earlier, Luan all but completely gave up on comedy after she overhead her siblings complaining about how annoying she had gotten in the time leading up to her big performance at the Chortle Portal for the Junior Comedian's Contest. Upon learning this and that she wasn't going to perform at all, Lincoln rallied his sisters in getting Luan to realize she was actually funny. After a few failed attempts, it took Lincoln bungling up badly himself at the Chortle Portal for Luan to regain her confidence and return to her comedic form, even winning the contest along the way._

" _Good to hear you having a h_ _earty_ _laugh, Luan. Better that than for you to ever question your comedic_ _prowess." Lincoln told his sister with_ _a_ _confident smile._

" _Aw, thanks." Luan expressed admirably as she sat up and moved closer to her brother, "And since you brought it up, I want to thank you again for stinking on purpose_ _that one night at the Chortle Portal. Had you not done that, I might've never been able to return to the comedy game at all."_

_L_ _incoln laughed nervously and ultimately sighed, "Well, you see, that's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. Truthfully, I wasn't actually stinking on purpose that night. In fact, I was really trying to do my best at my own stand-up routine, but I got so nervous the moment I went on stage that I was flubbing things up left and right._ _Had you not come up onstage and took over, I probably would've faced the wrath of a none too pleased contingent of Royal Woods comedy lovers."_

" _Wait, really?" Luan wondered in surprise, "Then again, come to think of it, you did look sort of out of it when you were on stage. But no matter what was going on, you being up there did allow me to summon the courage to get up on there myself and return to form, so again, thanks."_

_She scooted over just a little closer to Lincoln and put an arm around him, which he did the same around her waist._

" _Glad to have helped regardless." He said with a smile, "And speaking of being on stage and such, I do have to ask you something. How do you manage to be up there and not get, you know, super nervous or fearful over how the crowd reacts?"_

_Luan stroked her chin for a second before responding,_ _"_ _You know, the simplest way I can answer that is that it takes a lot of practice in getting used to everything. Yeah, it can be a little intimidating to have so many people watching your every move and waiting to react, but once you get that first big laugh, everything seems to go upward from there. You might remember that I used to practice in front of our family quite a bit when I was younger, then little by little I worked bigger crowds until it became second nature to me. So yeah, from my perspective, it's all a matter of_ _just working small and going up the ladder to the bigger gigs."_

" _Oh...I guess I can see that. For a moment I thought you were going to bring up the old cliché about imagining everyone in their underwear." Lincoln said, chuckling lightly._

" _Nah, that doesn't work for me. If anything, that makes things much more awkward. But of course, leave it to the boy who reads comics in his undies to think that's what I'd do." Luan teasingly stated, jabbing her brother playfully in the ribs with her elbow._

" _Hey, it's freeing, that's what it is!" Lincoln happily shot back._

_Luan engaged in a playful roll of her eyes, "Sure, whatever you say, little brother."_

_A quick share of grins and a pair of chortles overlapping, Luan reached over and resumed perusing her joke notebook, which Lincoln took a signal that he should be on his way. He stood up and made his way to the door._

" _Actually, hold on a second, Lincoln." Luan said to him._

_He paused and looked back over at her._

" _I got something of my own to ask and it's kinda related to what we were just talking about." She started off innocently, "What are you eating under there?"_

_Lincoln was perplexed, "Huh, eating under w_ _here_ _? I don't-"_

_That thought wouldn't be complete due to Luan bursting into another round of uproarious laughter._

" _I just got you to admit you're eating underwear! Get it?!"_

_It took a few seconds, but Lincoln registered everything with a facepalm, a shake of his head, a sigh and a stifled chuckle._

" _You are unbelievable..." He said before smiling in his sister's direction, "But you know what, don't ever stop being that."_

* * *

"Even if some of your puns can kinda...out there, and can also be uninspired, I'd never want you to change because of what others might think." Lincoln said.

"Aw, shucks, get outta here." Luan replied in teasing embarrassment, "But hey, not every joke has to land. That's why I put myself _undie_ pressure to keep myself at the top of my game!"

Lincoln scoffed humorously, "Case in point..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, why don't we save the comedy critique for another time and check out this last video?" Luan suggested, mussing around Lincoln's hair.

"Suit yourself." He said.

Lincoln turned his attention back to his laptop and scrolled to the last of the videos that Luan had to offer. This final one had a more simpler title compared to the other two: "Sharing is Caring."

"Huh, what could this one be about?" He asked.

"Just play it and see." Luan implored to him, "This is actually my favorite one of tonight's offerings."

His curiosity growing by the second, Lincoln did just that and initiated in playing of this last video.

This time around, the park was where events were taking place. The first few seconds showed various combinations of the siblings playing and hanging around together before panning over to a nine-year-old Luan and six-year-old Lincoln sitting on a bench while Rita approached them with a pair of ice cream cones, handing one to each.

At first, all seemed fine until a breeze startled Lincoln and resulted in him dropping his ice cream cone to the ground. Fewer things for a boy of his age at the time are as upsetting as that, so he started to cry. After getting assurances to get him another, Rita went back over to the ice cream vendor to do that.

In the meantime, Luan looked at her saddened brother and back over to her own ice cream cone, then an idea came to mind.

" _Here, you can have mine, Lincoln."_

The boy turned over to his sister, tears coating his little cheeks, as she presented her own cone to him. At first glance, he wasn't sure in accepting this most generous of offers.

" _But...but...that's yours..."_

" _It's okay. I'll tell Mom to give me the new one she's getting you."_

For the young six-year-old, this was a level of generosity he hadn't seen much of from Luan at this point in his life. At her insistence, he accepted the cone as he smiled appreciatively at her.

" _Thank you, Luan!"_

As that video wrapped up, Luan put her arm around Lincoln again.

"Give me credit, I can be a total softy when I want to be." She said.

Lincoln breathed a little happy sigh, "Yeah, you can be. Plus, seeing this does remind me that it wouldn't be the last time we shared food of some kind. Granted, the moment I'm thinking of did appear to only come about due to something really stupid I did to you..."

* * *

" _Of all the things he had to do…"_

_Luan was most certainly not in a good mood right now. Currently, she was sitting on the couch with her foot wrapped up in a cast and propped up on the coffee table with a pillow underneath and a pair of crutches to her right side. This after Lincoln made her the victim of a booby trap where he rigged a watermelon to fall onto her foot when she tried to snatch up one of the mac and cheese bites he'd been saving up. The trap came about after he found out someone had pilfered one of them already, most likely Lana when she belched after trying to deny any hypothetical culpability on her part._

_As Luan sat by in her state of injury, Lincoln was in the kitchen and looked inside the refrigerator._

" _Ah, now with no more vulturous sisters in my way..."_

_He retrieved the plastic container which housed the two remaining mac and cheese bites and was about to dive in to them._

_Except, however, a sudden pang of guilt occurred within him. Though he was at the time quite peeved upon finding one of the bites being taken, Lincoln now wondered if he had been a little too selfish in trying to claim the remnants just only for himself. The words from Lori a while ago about how you can't expect to save every last scrap of food for yourself played back in his head. Thought he hated to admit it, she was likely right about that, and when he added the extreme lengths he went to preserve them and the fact he seriously harmed one of his sisters in the process, r_ _emorse_ _was really occupying up space in him._

_Feeling like he had to make things right to Luan, assuming she'll even give him that chance, Lincoln made a route to the living room, carrying with him the one thing he hoped could increase his chances for forgiveness in tow._

_Arriving in the living room, Lincoln approached Luan, and the moment he entered her sight, she shot him a glare._

" _Hey, uh…how are you, Luan?" Lincoln asked with an embarrassed chuckle._

_Immediately, Luan folded her arms and averted her gaze away from him._

" _Well, I don't really blame for being like this if I'm being honest..." Lincoln said in concession._

_He sat down next to his sister, something that she sensed even with directly looking at him and if she really had a choice weren't not for her lack of mobility, she'd want to leave and not have anything to do with the brother who crushed her foot for the next while._

" _Listen, Luan, I understand that you're mad at me and again, I don't blame you one bit for being like that." Lincoln started out with, "I was selfish, short-sighted and irresponsible for what I did to you and I'm sorry. I know apologies might not be enough to make up for everything, so..."_

_He pulled out the plastic container and popped the lid open, a sound that did cause Luan to revert her sights back to Lincoln. He presented the container to her._

" _Here, you can have both of the mac and cheese bites that are remaining. Note that I said 'the', not 'my', since it's selfish of me to claim them solely for myself."_

_Luan was little taken off guard by Lincoln's willingness to give away what he was so possessive of not too long ago. Nonetheless, she took the container into her own hands and stared at the contents within. She looked back over at her brother as he gave her an approving smile._

_However, it would be Lincoln's turn to be surprised when Luan claimed only one of the mac and cheese bites before handing the container back to him._

" _Huh? But I said you can have them both." He said confusedly and tried to hand the container over to her again, "Seriously, I insist."_

_Luan pushed the container away from her and shook her head, grinning very lightly in the process. The signal that appeared to be clearly given out was that one was satisfactory enough for her and that Lincoln can lay claim to the final bite for himself._

_As Luan began eating the mac and cheese bite in her possession, Lincoln eventually did take the last one and did the same._

" _Well, I should perhaps leave you alone now." Lincoln said once he finished eating._

_He took the container and its lid as he prepared to depart, but not before Luan suddenly spoke up._

" _Actually, wait a moment, Lincoln." She said._

_Lincoln turned back around, "Hmm?"_

" _I know you were just there, but can you do me a favor and go back over to the fridge?" Luan requested, "There was a brownie I was hoping to call for myself assuming no one else has done so already. Mind if you bring it to me?"_

" _Oh, uh...all right then. Sure, I can get it for you." Lincoln responded._

_With that, Lincoln returned to the kitchen where he first put away the plastic container and then looked inside the refrigerator. After a quick scan, he saw a rectangular shape covered in a white wrapper which he presumed was the brownie that Luan requested. He took it and came back over to the living room._

" _Is this it?" Lincoln asked his sister._

_Luan nodded, "Indeed it is. Thank you, Lincoln. Now why don't you take a seat again?"_

_Lincoln was somewhat perplexed by that request, but nevertheless followed along. He sat back down while he watched Luan peel apart the wrapper to show off the brownie within. She broke it off into two halves and much to Lincoln's surprise, she handed one of them to him._

" _Whoa...why are you…?" Lincoln attempted saying._

" _Hey, you let me have one of your mac and cheese bites, so I should in return let you have some of my brownie, too." Luan said while smiling, "After all, sharing is caring."_

_Smiling back at her, Lincoln accepted the half of the brownie his sister offered him as both of them noshed away. Afterward, Lincoln shifted closer over to Luan so he could pat her on the shoulder. Likewise, she returned the favor by drawing him to her into a brief hug._

" _Yes, if you're wondering, I think I can say that I forgive you right about now." She told him._

* * *

"I think the takeaway from that if you ask me is this: never underestimate the power that the sharing of snacks can have in earning one's forgiveness." Luan said.

Lincoln laughed, "And that watermelons shouldn't be dropped on your sister's foot to protect scraps of food that you know won't be the last time you'll ever have them."

"That's also true. Though I do wonder where you got the inspiration to pull off something like that. _Water_ you believe made you think of that?" Luan asked with a teasing wink.

"Beats me." Lincoln said in mock innocence, "Whomever it may have been, their deviousness must've rubbed off onto me."

Both shared a brief giggle fit and then sighed.

"But seriously, to borrow a saying from a certain comedienne, thanks for sharing those videos, Luan. They were nice to see." Lincoln said appreciatively, "I know I asked this already, but are you sure there wasn't some kind of catch to this?"

"No, not at all, Lincoln." Luan answered, giving her him a rub of his back, "All I ever wanted to do was share in a moment of late night bonding with the only little brother I'll ever have."

She reached out and wrapped up said only little brother into a hug, something that Lincoln welcomed and gave back willingly.

"Thanks again, Luan." He said.

Once they parted, Lincoln closed the window on his laptop, went through the "proper" manner in ejecting Luan's flash drive before handing it over to her and shutting down the laptop.

"Thanks, Lincoln. Here, why don't I put this away for you?" Luan offered.

With the flash drive in her hand, Luan also took Lincoln's laptop and placed it back on his dresser. At the same time, Lincoln let out a little yawn as he crawled under the covers and got comfortable. Once he was all situated, Luan returned over by his side to give him a quick little kiss on his forehead.

"Good night, Lincoln." She said.

"Good night, Luan." Lincoln said in return.

Both shared a smile and then Luan left her brother be. While he began drifting to sleep, he had one last thought over the complexities that encapsulated his fourth oldest sister. Sure, she can be equal parts funny, tiring and cunning. But above all else, she was also truly a sweet, caring and insightful girl that he was grateful to have as one of his many sisters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, two are done! Who knows? Maybe another one will be done and up here as soon as tomorrow...and with that sense of intrigue, seen you soon!


	3. Driven to Inspire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are with the third entry here.
> 
> Right, this one features Leni and the flashbacks are based around "Driving Miss Hazy", "Along Came a Sister", and "What Wood Lincoln Do?".
> 
> This one didn't take long at all write because the first pair of flashbacks were actually parts of a one-shot I had long scrapped, but still at least preserved it, so I basically just copied and pasted them onto this. Convenience!
> 
> Okay, I shall allow you to read on.
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

A simple afternoon was unfolding at the Loud house, but for its sole boy of the family residing within, it was the start of a outing day for him.

Inside his room, Lincoln was in the middle of some last minute preparations for a day out with his second oldest sister, Leni. The exact details of what this day entailed were quite sparse, so he assumed that she was going to fill him in any moment now or perhaps it was going to be one of those "know on the go" kind of situations. Nevertheless, the lack of specifics did fill Lincoln with a sense of intrigue as to how this day was going to be spent.

After making sure all was proper apparel wise with him, plus taking a small amount of his own money just for the sake of it, Lincoln departed from his room and made a path down the stairs. He figured Leni was still getting herself ready, such as managing every fine detail of her own attire or carefully applying that last portion of makeup or perhaps in the middle of her whole "brushing her hair exactly fifty times" routine. Regardless, he knew if it was anything of the sort, it was going to take a little more time, so he thought about taking a seat in the living room to pass the time.

However, before making rear end to seat cushion contact, Lincoln heard the distinct sound of Vanzilla's car horn blaring from outside. There was no verbal response that went along with it, so at first he paid no mind. But a second round came on through and finally Lincoln went to check out what's up, but not before getting a quick check on Leni.

"Come on, Leni, let's get going!" Lincoln shouted up the stairwell.

He got no response and once again, the car horn of the family wagon blasted and now the lone Loud boy's nerves were getting roiled. He grumbled indistinctly as he opened the front door and was about to unload on the offender…

Until he saw who was occupying the driver seat.

"There you are, Lincoln! Are you finally ready?"

Much to his surprise, he saw Leni manning the wheel of Vanzilla and leaning her head out the window. At first, he was unsure of this sight, but it soon came back to him. Recently, Leni had finally at long last earned her driver's license and it was something Lincoln was still adjusting to, since he had been so used to Lori being the only sibling with such privileges. He just assumed like other instances that Lori or one of their parents were going to shuttle he and Leni around for whatever laid ahead of them for the day, so to instead see his airy fashionista sister prepared to do that instead kind of threw him for a loop.

"Lincoln, aren't you coming?" Leni reiterated to him.

Snapping himself out of his lulled state of mind, Lincoln jogged on over to the front passenger seat, got inside and strapped himself in.

"Sorry, Leni. Was I keeping you waiting?" He asked.

"Maybe, like, just a little bit?" Leni admitted reluctantly, "I didn't want to rush you, but still..."

"No, it's not your fault, Leni. I guess I didn't know that you were the one driving us for our day together is all." Lincoln assured her.

"Oh, well, yeah, I am. But that's not a problem, is it?" Leni asked.

"No, no, no, it isn't!" Lincoln said adamantly, "I'm still just getting used to you in this position is all. So with that out of the way, shall we get going?"

A smile forming on her face, Leni nodded and started the engine. She set the gear to reverse and looked back over, performing a faultless backing out of the drive before shifting to drive and whisking herself and Lincoln to their still secretive day out together, at least secretive from Lincoln's side of things.

For the next couple of minutes, Lincoln was impressed at how skillful Leni was behind the wheel. No accidents involving fire hydrants, paperboys or nuns, no stopping to hip check old ladies or no incidents of driving into swimming pools mistaking them for carpool lanes. Having since passing her driving test and acquiring her license, that obviously meant Leni's driving skills had to have improved substantially, but there still was that little inkling inside of Lincoln that thought there might be some sort of incident upon the horizon, but thus far those worries seem unwarranted.

"Nice driving so far, Leni." Lincoln complemented her, "You're really becoming a pro at this."

"Aw, why thank you, Lincoln!" Leni said in her typically bubbly fashion.

But then, just as if to prove there was some justification in his earlier worries, Lincoln witnessed Leni turned her sights to him and try to wrap her arm around instead of keeping herself fixated on what's ahead of her.

"Leni! Keep you eyes on the road!" Lincoln shouted.

Quickly heeding his words, Leni yelped, looked back ahead and also instinctively hit the brakes. Luckily, they were on an empty stretch of road where no one or nothing would've suffered from a catastrophic crash caused by Leni.

"Leni...if there's one piece of advice to always hold on to when driving...it's to always keep your eyes on the road...no matter what." Lincoln advised her while taking a couple of breaths in between.

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry, Lincoln..." Leni said very regretfully, "I should've know better, especially since you were the one who did more than anybody to help me learn about driving."

Following that briefly tense moment, Leni resumed in driving as Lincoln tried calming himself so more. While the journey continued, he also took a moment to mull over his sister's words. While it is true that he probably did in fact do the lion's share of helping Leni gain the knowledge to finally pass her driving test, he did remember feeling like there was a period of time he doubted that he really did as much as he could, perhaps foolishly if anything else. Even more perplexingly, he even though he failed her in some ways. Luckily, he got some much needed reassurance to the contrary from the very sister he was helping…

* * *

_A wide, beaming smile was on the face of Leni Loud. The 16-year-old resident fashionista of the Loud family had just came back home from another practice driving session along with her older sister, Lori. Leni was coming back home just by herself, as Lori would then drive on off to do an errand or two for herself._

_It had been a fairly busy few days for Leni. A while earlier, she had all but given up hope on if she would ever get her driver's license. She had failed her driving test on fourteen different occasions, the most recent failure being the direct fault of Lori trying to sabotage Leni with misleading advice, but Lori had since attempted to rectify her deception with those aforementioned practice sessions._

_However, if there was one person more responsible for Leni's newfound determination to pass her test, it was her little brother, Lincoln. She was so appreciative over how he was so bound and determined to help his big sister in a number of creative ways that she didn't know how she could possibly thank him once she did in fact get her license._

_Right as she stepped back into the house through the front door, Leni would sure enough see Lincoln laying down on the living room couch with his attention firmly on a comic book he was reading._

" _Hi, Lincoln!" Leni enthusiastically greeted her little brother with a wave._

" _Hey Leni." Lincoln responded somewhat flatly, his eyes not diverting away from his comic._

" _So, in case you were wondering, I just came back home from some more practice driving with Lori. I think soon enough I'll be able to totes pass my driving test finally!" Leni said with some zeal._

" _Yeah, that's great, Leni. Just great." Lincoln said, again with little in the way of emotion._

_Leni looked towards her younger brother in puzzlement. The lackadaisical manner in which he had been speaking was making her worry a little. Being the naturally caring girl of a sweet nature she was, she wanted to find out if something was bothering him._

" _Lincoln, are you okay?" Leni asked as she joined him on the couch._

" _I'm fine, Leni..." Lincoln answered in a more annoyed tone, pulling the comic closer to his face to avoid directly looking at her._

" _You don't sound fine, though." Leni said while moving closer towards her brother, "Come on, Lincoln, is there something that's bothering you?"_

_Lincoln groaned softly, then sighed. Relenting to his sister's concerns for him, he put aside his comic and looked at her._

" _It's...kind of dumb. You'll probably think so too if I tell you." He said timidly._

_Leni shook her head and placed both her hands on his shoulders, "Nothing can be dumb to me if it's upsetting you. It's all right, you can tell me."_

_Lincoln sighed again, "Okay, well…I've kind of been feeling like I have failed you in a way in getting you ready for your last two driving tests."_

" _Failed me?" Leni questioned in mystification, "What do you mean?"_

" _Well, I mean...I want to say it's my fault for when you failed the test for the thirteenth time because I made you think it would be exactly like the video game I had you practice with." Lincoln responded, his tone getting more r_ _egretful_ _, "And even though it was mainly Lori's fault regarding your most recent test failure, given that she tried to sabotage you_ _and all_ _, I feel like I had a hand in that too, somehow. But at the very least right now she's helping you practice. What have I been doing recently, other than just lazing around?"_

_Leni looked on at her brother sadly. Hearing him trying to take any sort of blame for her recent test failures was something that she really didn't like hearing, especially since she actually believed he had a real positive impact on her with regards to her attitude in relation to driving. Not wanting to see or have him wallow in self-pity, Leni brought Lincoln over to her with right arm and let him rest against her shoulder._

" _Aw, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Lincoln." Leni told him comfortingly, "You haven't failed me at all. You've done more than anybody to help me get ready for those tests. Besides, it was my fault I failed it on my thirteenth try, not yours. I took everything from that game of yours way too seriously and thought the test would be just like it. But you know what? Even after failing, you didn't give up on me. You still believed in me, even getting the rest of our sisters to help out, too. And sure, Lori may be helping me practice, but you gave me something much more important."_

" _Really? What do you mean?" Lincoln wondered._

_Leni cupped his face and made in look directly up at her, "You gave me my confidence, Lincoln, and that is so important. I could know every little things about cars, from the spinny thingy…or, uh, the steering wheel, to the blinky-blink...er, the turn signal, but none of that would have mattered if I wasn't confident in myself. But with your help, I did in fact gain the confidence to keep going and I'm sure I'll soon enough pass the test once and for all, I'll get my license and it'll all be due to your help."_

_Giving Lincoln a soft smile, Leni would then bring her little brother against her as she affectionately embraced him._

" _I can't thank you enough, Lincoln. I so appreciate everything you've done for me." She said softly._

_Perhaps as a result of her kindness and reassurances, Lincoln felt a lot better about himself and showed his own appreciation by hugging his big sister back._

" _Thanks, Leni." Lincoln said with a grin, but then quickly got a little uneasy again, "Though there is one other little thing that's bothering me I must admit."_

" _Huh?" Leni said while pulling away to face him, "What is it?"_

" _This may be even dumber than me trying to take any blame for your test failures..." Lincoln admitted in concern, "But I have to say for the most part, the only reason at first I really wanted to help get your license was so someone other than Lori could give me rides to places the like the comic book store. I kind of feel guilty about that. I should have been doing it so you could become more independent and not for my own selfish desires."_

" _Hey now, don't think of it like that." Leni said before she gently caressed the side of her little brother's face, "I'd love to do that for you, just as much as I love you as well, Linky."_

_She lightly gave him a kiss on the cheek, the same one she just caressed, then pulled him into another hug, which again Lincoln returned in kind happily._

" _Oh, well, thank you, Leni. I love you, too. And I know you will get your license sooner rather than later." He said proudly._

* * *

"Lincoln? Lincoln? Lincoln!"

"Huh, what?"

Lincoln looked around and realized he had been so lost in thought that he didn't notice until now that Leni had parked and shut off Vanzilla's engine, presumably having arrived at the first destination of their day.

"Was there something wrong, Lincoln?" Leni asked.

"What? Oh, no, I just kind of spaced out was all." Lincoln replied, taking a second to regain himself.

He looked around again and found out that they had arrived at the mall, a predicable but otherwise safe bet for an outing with Leni. After all, she and the mall go together like peanut butter and jelly, cereal and milk and any other kind of foodstuffs that gelled well in conjunction with one another.

With both of them stepping out of Vanzilla, Leni and Lincoln ventured onward to the former's physical representation of paradise.

In the hour that passed, a whirlwind of shops were visited, but the majority of time was spent perhaps unsurprisingly at Reininger's, the store where Leni worked at part time. They were having a 20% sale going on today, and when the fact that employees get an additional 50% discount, a total of 70% of savings was something Leni absolutely couldn't turn down.

For the most part, Lincoln had very little involvement in his sister's shopping, aside from the occasional opinion about a particular article of clothing she had difficulty selecting. Because of the lack of input on his end, Lincoln kind of felt himself spacing out again just like he did back in Vanzilla, something that didn't go unnoticed with Leni.

"Hey, Lincoln? You look like you're doing that spacey outie thingy again. Are you sure you're okay?" She asked very concernedly.

Lincoln sighed heavily, "Yes, yes, I'm fine. Maybe I just need to take a moment in shaking out the cobwebs."

"Cobwebs? As in spiders?!" Leni exclaimed, her eyes getting wide as she grew panic stricken and looked every which way, "Where, where?!"

"Leni, relax!" Lincoln tried in calming her down, "I meant I just need to take a few seconds in collecting myself and I'll be okay."

"Oh...well, okay then." Leni said, taking a deep breath, "Phew, sorry about that. I should totes know better than thinking there would be spiders, like, crawling around and stuff around here, unless we're at the pet shop."

Although he probably shouldn't be finding any humor in this, Lincoln held back a chuckle. Sometimes there was a little bit of amusement in Leni's fear of spiders. After all, she is one who almost every single time fell for thinking Luan's rubber spider was real and such. But one experience where no humor at all occurred involving spiders was so traumatizing for Leni that it caused her to need being with Lincoln for a little while to ease things. But on the flip side, that same night when such horrors happened was also when Lincoln got a huge surprise from Leni, too…

* * *

_One evening, Leni was frenetically scrubbing herself over the sink in the bathroom as she was preparing for bed. Today had been one of the most traumatic ones in her life. Earlier, Lincoln had brought home with him his class' pet tarantula so he could look after it over the weekend. He tried to make sure that Leni didn't know about it, given how much she hated spiders, but as to be expected, she did and almost killed it in fear. But she had a quick change of heart when she overheard Lincoln saying how his class was going to hate him over what had allegedly happened, and then when it was revealed that the tarantula was still alive, she actually was brave enough to save it from the exterminator that had been hired to kill it. Even more importantly, Leni stood up for Lincoln in his defense over what would happen to his social standing at school had the spider been killed._

_But after all of that had occurred, while Lincoln was off returning the tarantula, who he originally thought was a male named Frank, but was in fact a female who he and his sisters renamed as Frances, something very terrifying happened. As Leni was in her room brushing her hair, a whole brood of baby spiders belonging to Frances had hatched in the ventilation shaft right above. Naturally, she was mortified beyond belief, so much so that even after all of the spiders were gotten rid of, her room being disinfected and getting herself a very, very long shower, she absolutely refused to stay in her room for the night. Luckily, primarily because he felt this was all his fault in the first place, Lincoln had offered to let Leni stay in his room until she felt comfortable going back._

_Once she was finished up in the bathroom, Leni left and went down the hall over to Lincoln's room, bringing with her an extra pillow and curiously enough, her purse. She knocked on the door and he graciously let her inside._

" _Thanks again for letting me stay the night with you, Lincoln. That is so sweet of you." Leni said as she came in._

" _It's the least I can do, Leni, since today's ordeal was kind of my own doing." Lincoln said, followed by some nervous laughter, "By the way, while we're on the subject of thanks, I really appreciated how you stood up for me after saving Frank...err, Frances. That name change is going to take a while for me to remember."_

_Leni chuckled and patted her brother on the shoulder, "It's no problem. While my fear of spiders is pretty strong, my feelings to do right for you is much stronger."_

_Lincoln smiled as he gave his sister a hug, "Thank you, Leni. That makes me feel real good inside."_

_Leni embraced Lincoln in return briefly, then both of them climbed into bed, with Lincoln getting on first and Leni just after him as she placed down her pillow next to the one he rests on. It was kind of a relief for Lincoln that Leni was able to make herself comfortable, since at first he didn't know if she was going to even fit in, thinking she might be too big for his bed, especially in the context of sharing it with him. Luckily, things appeared to be working out, with Lincoln shuffling himself over close against the wall on his side of the bed so Leni could have just enough space for herself._

_However, before they could get some shuteye, there was something Leni wanted her brother to see._

" _Hey, let me show you something, Lincoln." She said to him, a grin beginning to form across her lips._

_Curious to see what this could be, Lincoln looked on while Leni rummaged around her purse for a moment. Soon enough, she pulled something out of it and held it up to him. It was a small rectangular piece of plastic. Not even a second after seeing this, Lincoln eyes lit up and he smiled widely._

" _You...you got your driver's license?!" He stated excitedly._

_Leni nodded and let out a very happy squeal of delight. Overjoyed, Lincoln tightly hugged her while she did the same to him._

" _Oh, I'm so happy for you, Leni! Way to go!" Lincoln expressed with pride, "When did you get it?"_

" _Just yesterday!" She replied ecstatically, "I wanted to wait a little bit so I can surprise you with it. You and Lori are right now the only ones who know. But don't worry, I'll tell everyone else tomorrow. Anyway, I have to thank you so much, Lincoln! You're the biggest reason I managed to finally succeed in this!"_

_All Lincoln could do was continued to smile as Leni pulled back and then gave him a very emphatic kiss on the cheek. After a prolonged period in their embrace, they parted ways before Leni put her brand new license back in her purse and put it down on the floor. After that, she and Lincoln laid back down to get some sleep. At first, they were on respective sides of the bed, but Leni couldn't help but bring her little brother over close to him in her arms._

" _My sweet, little Linky..." She said before yawning._

_Lincoln chuckled lightly as he gladly welcomed his big sister's warmth to the point he snuggled closer to her. As both of them drifted off to sleep, Lincoln was left with a feeling of such pride over having such a great sister. From how she stood by his side after saving Frances, to knowing he had done his part in helping her getting her driver's license, the were no shortage of ways of why he loved and cared for her so._

* * *

"Done!" Leni shouted, "You ready, Lincoln?"

"Oh, you mean we're done here? Uh, sure, right behind you!" Lincoln replied.

With that, Leni handed Lincoln one of the bags of stuff she bought for him to carry as both of them returned to the parking lot and Vanzilla. The bags were placed in the back and then they both headed back for the driver and front passenger seat.

"So, was that it, Leni? Just a simple trip to the mall?" Lincoln questioned.

Leni shook her head, "No, we've got a couple of other places to go to."

"Like?" Lincoln asked simply.

"Oh, you'll see!" Leni answered in a bubbly cryptic fashion.

She turned over the engine of Vanzilla and drove off, leaving Lincoln to wonder what could be in store next.

Coincidentally enough, "store" was apt in describing the next destination they arrived at, one that Lincoln was nothing short of befuddled over.

"Wait, what? Shoulda Coulda Wooda? Why on earth are we here, Leni?" Lincoln asked at a sheer loss.

"Oh, this is something that Lana requested be done." Leni began explaining after finishing parking, "She said something about needed some falsa wood and mahuganoy. Is that, like, wood you can hug?"

"Uh, I think you mean _balsa_ wood and _mahogany_." Lincoln corrected his sister.

Still quite dumbstruck that this hardware store of all places was part of his day out with Leni, Lincoln still followed along with her inside. But as they entered, he had something of a far away look in his eyes as he was surround by the various tools, wood and other such related products. It was like he was experiencing his own 11-year-old variation of "I'm remembering the horrors of 'Nam" flashbacks. In this case, it was his misadventures and then some with woodworking. He was so out of it that he almost lost sight of Leni just as much as she absentmindedly left him several feet behind until she finally turned over to see him standing there so awkwardly.

"Lincoln!" She called out to him.

Finally, Lincoln snapped out of it and jogged up to his sister, who was looking very distressed.

"Lincoln, this is the third time something like this has happened." Leni said full of worry as she knelt down to his level, "Something must be going and you should really let me know!"

Lincoln sighed and shook his head. Before he could say anything, though, Leni took him by the hand and brought him along with her away and out of the store. Luckily, there was a nearby bench that she had her brother and herself sit down on so they could work things out.

"What happened back there, Linky?" Leni asked him in a caring, maternal voice, "What's going on with you today?"

"I'm sorry, Leni. I didn't mean for that to happen." Lincoln said, taking a deep breath to regain himself, "I guess coming here sort of threw me for a loop, mainly because it made me remember all the bad times I've had with woodworking. You should know since there was a time I told you about it and how you also tried to help me through things..."

* * *

" _Okay, Lincoln, you can do this..."_

_Those words of self-motivation were spoken while the singular Loud boy was in the garage with various pieces of wood and a handful of tools on the workbench. He took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the task at hand: overcoming his anxieties when engaging in the trade of woodworking._

_From "jelly legs" to blurry vision to ringing in his ears, there was something about woodworking that made Lincoln get so nervous. He only narrowly passed his most recent school assignment in that field when he barely managed to make a stool all by himself without any assistance or attempts to say, get his mom to do the work for him like he did previously. But passing with the minimal effort of making a ramshackle of a stool was only a small moral victory for Lincoln. Now, he wanted to prove to himself that he could truly build something more competently made._

_Gathering some more willpower, Lincoln tried steeling his nerves as he approached the workbench. He technically had no idea what he was going to build, but as long as it had effort put into it, he didn't care about the exact specifics._

" _All right now..." Lincoln said, reaching over to grab some wood, "Hello there, Mr. Wood. You're not so bad, aren't you? No, you're just itching to be made into something nice."_

_He may find t_ _alking to his supplies_ _silly, but if it helps keep his cool for the duration, then so be it._

" _Okay, let's talk to Mr. Hammer, here..." He said while taking said tool into his hand, "Yeah, so far so good..."_

_He may have spoken too soon as Lincoln started hearing that distinct ringing in his ears, and just like that, a cascading effect commenced where all his anxieties arrived at once. Blurriness in his vision and legs trembling coming on through, Lincoln placed everything back on the bench and took a few steps back._

" _Maybe I can't do this…" He said dejectedly._

_With a heavy sigh, Lincoln stood in place and lowered his head in defeat._

" _Oh, there you are, Lincoln! I've been looking for you!"_

_Hearing his name being addressed, he glanced over his shoulder to see Leni approaching him._

" _What's going on, Leni?" Lincoln asked._

" _Well, like I just said, I was looking all around for you, because I wanted your help with something." Leni replied perkily._

_Lincoln sighed again, "Normally, I'd love to help, but right now I'm just not in the mood..."_

_Upon realizing her brother's gloomy posture and manner of speaking, Leni came closer to him and put both her hands on his shoulders._

" _Lincoln, is there something wrong?" She wondered in a worried tone._

_Lincoln chose not to say anything right away, but Leni did glance up to the workbench and saw all the scattered supplies and such before her._

" _What w_ _ere_ _you doing?" She inquired._

_Lincoln took another sigh and tried formulating a response, but once more he couldn't get anything out, which only increased his sister's concerns._

" _Lincoln, please, say something. What's going on?" Leni pleaded with him._

" _All right, all right, I'll tell you." Lincoln said in a mix of annoyance and uneasiness, "I'm trying my hand at woodworking again, and I say again because I've being doing some of that at school. The thing is, I have such a hard time whenever I take part in it and I'm trying it again on my own to overcome these issues that crop up, like blurriness in my vision, ringing in my ears and jelly legs."_

" _What? Jelly on your legs? How does that work out?" Leni questioned, the latter condition clearly befuddling her._

" _No, I mean that my legs get shaky to the point that I might lose my balance." Lincoln clarified._

" _Ohhh..." Leni uttered._

_She took another look at the workbench, then she examined everything further when she came right up to it._

" _You know, maybe I can help out." Leni offered, looking back over to her brother._

" _Wait, you would?" Lincoln asked surprised._

" _Of course, Lincoln!" Leni answered with zeal, "I'd totes would help!"_

" _But what would you know about this kind of stuff? I mean..." Lincoln was in the middle of saying, but then it hit him, "Oh, wait, that's right! You made that bed frame for Lori after you took her words too literally about how she wanted you to 'make your bed' during the time you were still getting your license."_

_Leni nodded, "Uh-huh, yeah! So can we work on this together?"_

" _Actually, let me offer a different suggestion if you're really wanting to help me, Leni." Lincoln began with, "Like I said, I want to prove I can do this myself, so how about you instead just stay by my side to give me moral support, okay?"_

" _Uh...okay, sure! As long as I can help out in any way, I'm happy with that." Leni said._

_Giving his second oldest sister a thankful smile, Lincoln returned to the workbench, but once again, that same ringing in his ears came back in force._

" _Oh, dang it, that ringing..." He said as he shut his eyes and held the side of his head._

_In an instant, Leni stood behind Lincoln and put her arms around him._

" _It's okay, Linky..." She whispered to his ear._

_That soft, soothing voice of his sister seemed like it was doing the trick. The ringing faded out as Lincoln reopened his eyes and took a breath of air. A little blurry vision did also occur, but a few blinks took care of that in short order. Next, Lincoln reached over to take one plank of wood and set another one on top of that._

" _What are you making, anyway?" Leni asked as she rested her chin on Lincoln's head._

" _I'm not sure to tell the truth." He admitted, "Maybe I'm just going with the flow and seeing w_ _h_ _ere that takes me."_

_For his_ _next_ _step, Lincoln opened up a box of nails_ _and dumped out a tiny number of them. Then, he was about to grab the hammer again, but the jelly legs were returning with a vengeance, which in turn was causing his whole body to shake._

" _Hey, relax..." Leni said in a very calm voice, tightening her hold of her little brother, "You can do this, Lincoln."_

_Taking another deep breath, Lincoln felt a small, but rising sense of determination flowing within him_ _thanks to Leni's assurances_ _. He took a nail and p_ _ositioned_ _it over_ _to the two planks of wood, then he grabbed the hammer and hovered over the nail. He gently tapped the nail a couple of times until it began going into the wood. Slowly but surely, he increased the rate of tapping until he'd driven the nail all the way in._

" _Hey, you did it, Lincoln!" Leni said happily._

_Lincoln chuckled sightly, "Yeah, I guess so! But this just only the beginning."_

_Now with some confidence at hand, Lincoln took another nail and hammered it in with more proper effort, then started repeating the process with a third one_ _and before he knew it, he had a whole row of nails_ _bonding_ _together the two planks_ _firmly._

" _Wow, look at that!_ _Way to go, Linky!" Leni expressed exuberantly, giving him a quick, little squeeze._

" _Thanks, Leni!" Lincoln responded._

_He gently worked himself out of his sister's grasp and held up the two pieces of wood a bit._

" _It's not much, but it's start at least." He said, proud of his handiwork thus far, "_ _Still have no clue as to what this will become, but hey, I'll take this first step."_

_He put them back down and turned around to face Leni._

" _You know, I think I can handle things from here, Leni." Lincoln told her._

" _You sure about that?" Leni wondered, a hint of lingering worry in her voice._

_Lincoln reached out and patted his sister's shoulder, "I'm sure. It seems all I needed was that little extra bit of motivation and inspiration from you._ _So don't worry, I really do think I'm good from here. But thanks for the support, Leni, because it really did help out."_

_To show that little bit more gratitude to her, Lincoln put his arms around Leni's waist and hugged her for a moment, something that she was always willing to reciprocate._

" _Aw, you're welcome, Lincoln!"_ _Leni said brimming in happiness._

_As soon as their embrace ended, Lincoln shifted focus back to his project, whatever it will turn out to be while Leni took her leave. However, there was one last bit of unfinished business._

" _Actually, wait a moment, Leni. Didn't you say you need help with something?" Lincoln wondered._

" _Oh, don't worry about it. I'll just ask one of our sisters instead." Leni replied just as she exited the garage._

_As the side door closed, Lincoln looked back at the workbench and pondered what his next step should be. Though he was still unsure as to what the final product of this project will turn out to be, he did realize something else even more fulfilling. No blurry vision, no jelly legs and no ringing in his ears. Instead, he had complete confidence in his abilities now and all it took were some kind words and warmth from Leni to press onward._

* * *

"Actually, 'tried' wasn't the right word. You really _did_ help out there in that case, Leni. Thank you." Lincoln told his sister gratefully.

"You're welcome, Lincoln." Leni said, placing an arm around him, "So if you're uncomfortable going back inside, you can wait in Vanzilla if you like."

Lincoln shook his head, "No, it's fine. I can deal with everything. I think talking and reminiscing helped out. Again, I think it was more just the shock we even came here in the first place that got to me briefly. Besides, what would it say about me if a hardware store was something that I was fearful of stepping foot in again? So really, I'm fine. Let's get this done."

With his signature confidence returning, Lincoln got up from the bench and this time around, he was the one leading Leni back inside and got the shopping that Lana requested done in due time.

After putting everything inside Vanzilla, the two siblings drove off for the next, and what would end up being the last destination of the day.

"Hey, uh, Leni, I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining or anything, but is this next place we're going to another store?" He inquired somewhat unsure, "I mean, not that I would be too put off if it was, but I can't help but feel like I've been brought along like I'm your personal shopping assistant or something."

Lincoln waited for a response, but Leni remained quiet for the time being, only solely keeping her eyes on the road ahead of her.

"Leni?" Lincoln asked again.

"Shh, it's a surprise!" She said, giggling a little.

On the one hand, Lincoln did feel a tiny bit frustrated inside over the secrecy that Leni was engaging in right now. But then again, this whole trip was basically filled with concealment of its agenda, so in a sense he couldn't exactly complain too much.

Luckily, he didn't have to feel that frustrated because his eyes grew wide when he saw the establishment that they pulled up to.

"An ice cream parlor?" He said with a grin beginning to form.

"Yeah!" Leni responded happily, "I kinda knew going in to today that this wasn't something you really wanted to do, shopping and all, so I thought we'd end the day here so we can do something we both like and as my way of saying thanks for coming with me regardless."

She reached over and gave Lincoln a quick one-armed hug before she stepped out of the driver's seat. He did concede that this was in fact not exactly how he foresaw this day out with Leni would go, but he certainly did like how it ended.

After all, as he stepped out and joined his sister, who could ever complain about ice cream?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that makes three! Before I leave you, there are couple of things I'll get out there.
> 
> One, the title of this chapter is referencing how both Leni and Lincoln helped each other with their respective issues in driving and woodworking. Just thought I mention that in case anyone was wondering since that title may not obviously convey the theme of this chapter as clearly like the other two did ("A Shared Affinity for Music" meaning how Luna and Lincoln have similar interests in music and "Late Night Memories" of course referencing that Luan and Lincoln were watching some home movie clips before going to bed).
> 
> Secondly, just in case anyone might point this out, the second flashback followed up the events of the first one, and I know that while "Along Came a Sister" aired first, "Driving Miss Hazy" was in production order before the former, so that's why I went with that order of the events for those flashbacks.
> 
> With all that out of the way, we'll see each other again for the next installment!


	4. Sporting and Bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Kept you waiting for this one, didn't I? Took a little bit to work on it, but I think it turned out well in that time.
> 
> Thanks to the change up I mentioned two chapters earlier, this one features Lynn and the flashbacks are based on "Sitting Bull", "Middle Men", and "Not a Loud".
> 
> Anyway, ready on and enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

The crack of dawn was arising in Royal Woods and for the most part, largely everyone in the Loud house was either still asleep or only just beginning to wake up.

But not Lincoln in this case. Normally, he would be in fact among those still grabbing those last few minutes of shuteye before going through the motions of getting up at his own pace. On this morning, however, there were different plans in the cards for him.

The other day, Lincoln had been talked into taking part in an early morning sports and exercising routine by Lynn. Or perhaps "dragooned" would be the more appropriate term in this instance. Not that Lincoln would be adverse to getting some outdoor activities into his schedule for the day, but doing it when the morning has barely even begun was something quite out of the ordinary. Still, he wanted to prove to Lynn that this wasn't anything he couldn't take up and try to back out of.

Not even getting a shower, which given that he knew that he'll likely work up a serious sweat due to whatever Lynn had in store and perhaps will be the right call for now, Lincoln threw on what he would consider the most appropriate attire for the occasion, which in this case was his school gym class clothes. With those on, he left his room and down the stairs, and after a quick spot of looking around, he saw Lynn in the kitchen in her own athletic garb complete with a headband while she was grunting and doing some lunges.

"About time you got here, Lincoln!" Lynn said when she noticed her brother arriving.

"Well, good morning to you, too, Lynn." Lincoln remarked with just a touch of sarcasm, "Sorry, but you know I'm not used to being up so early in the morning to work out and all."

Lynn chuckled and had an assertive grin on her face, "Well, there's always a first time for everything, right?"

Lincoln chuckled weakly in his own right, then he suddenly had to act fast when he saw Lynn lob something over to him.

"Here, these are pretty much gonna be your breakfast for now." She said.

Catching the items his sister sent his way, Lincoln saw that they were a pair of sports bars.

"I would've mixed you up a protein shake, too, but I think the time for you to have one of those will come later. Not sure if you're quite ready right now." Lynn expressed humorously, "Now eat up, I've already done so on my end."

Lincoln wanted to raise an objection about how fast things were going so early in the morning, but he likely knew that Lynn wasn't probably going to be in the mood for that, so he simply pulled the wrappers off the sports bars and took a bite.

"Huh, these aren't too bad at all." Lincoln said upon getting his first taste.

"Well, it's not like they're made to be bland or anything like that. They have to be the least bit flavorful on top of giving you the energy needed for the morning ahead." Lynn remarked with a chortle, "Now if you must, you can wash those down with something to drink of your choice when you're done, but hurry up! Don't keep me waiting much longer!"

With those words, Lynn bounded out of the kitchen and out the front door. In the meantime, Lincoln consumed his sports bar within a minute and guzzled down a portion of milk to wrap things up. Following a satisfied sigh, he too adjourned in order to head out front and join his eagerly awaiting sister.

"Okay, ready for a nice jog around the entire neighborhood?" Lynn asked her brother.

"Wait, the _entire_ neighborhood?" Lincoln asked back, appearing to denote having second thoughts.

"Did I stutter?" Lynn said, shooting Lincoln a determined look, but one that quickly melted into a smile, "No, I'm only joshing with you. Sheesh, you're easy to fool! But anyway, I'm more thinking like a couple of blocks that way and back. After all, this is just the warm up, so I don't wanna see you wear out too soon."

Lincoln let out a sighing chuckle, "Oh, well, I think I can handle that. In fact..."

Before Lynn could get another word out in edgewise, Lincoln dashed away from the front porch, leaving his sister briefly in the dust. With her own amused laugh, Lynn ran off and caught up with him in no time at all.

"You know, this isn't a race, Lincoln." Lynn reminded him, "Like I said, this is our warm up and I don't want you to overexert yourself too soon."

"Now, now, don't underestimate me, Lynn." Lincoln said smugly.

This tone from her brother came as a surprise to Lynn, "Well, where did this cockiness come from? Just a minute ago you looked like you came close to backing out when I jokingly said at first that we're jogging around the whole neighborhood."

"Yeah, but I'm feeling like I can take you on knowing we're only going for a couple of blocks." Lincoln boasted, "So what do you say?"

With that challenge being thrown down, Lincoln pushed himself a little harder until he was pulling away from his sister again. For a moment, Lynn chuckled somewhat derisively, though she also had to admire the gumption, perhaps foolhardy in nature, that her brother was showing, so she may as well indulge in this impromptu bout of competitiveness on his part.

"Be careful what you wish for, little bro!" She shouted at him.

Switching gears from jogging to straight up running, Lynn easily blew past Lincoln with ease. Not to be outdone, he grew a determined look on his face and cranked things up to running on his end, too.

A few minutes in, with Lynn getting further and further ahead, she suddenly stopped and began running in the opposite direction, likely signaling this was the point that she said earlier that they would head back over to their house. Lincoln would do the same once he arrived at that same point and tried his best in regaining ground with his sister. At this point, he did realize this may have not been the best of ideas.

Another few minutes on, Lynn had arrived back at the front yard of the house, and perhaps much to her surprise, she saw that Lincoln wasn't actually that far behind. He arrived where she was only a few seconds after she did, though he did look already like he wore himself out just a tad. Still, she couldn't help but be impressed.

"Wow, not bad, Linc." Lynn said with a smile, "Here I thought I was gonna be standing around waiting for like another minute or so, but here you are!"

Lincoln let out a light laugh and took a couple of breaths, "Thanks, Lynn. I have been...doing a lot of...running during gym class recently...so that might've helped some."

"It must have!" Lynn agreed, giving Lincoln a congratulatory jab on his shoulder, "Anyway, I think we can afford a brief little break before we move on."

Motioning for him to follow her, Lynn lead Lincoln to the front steps were both of them took a seat.

"Gotta say again, I'm really impressed that you managed to keep up with me pretty well, Lincoln." Lynn expressed with impressiveness, "It wasn't like I had to wait around or babysit you for any length of time."

"Yeah, indeed. And speaking of babysitting, isn't today the day we have another evening of looking after the Fox quintuplets? I do think that's today." Lincoln said.

Lynn had a look of realization on her face, "Oh, dang it, I think you're right! I completely forgot until you brought it up just now! Guess that gives our morning workout session more of a purpose than before, since we can now use it as an excuse to prepare ourselves physically for taking on those crazy little small fries."

"Yeah, that's one way of looking at it." Lincoln agreed, "We might as well also ask again if any of our older sisters could tag along, too, should any of them be available."

Lynn nodded, "Always a good idea to do that, bolstering our ranks that is. It's good to know you don't mind helping me out with those kids. To think I almost quit babysitting altogether had you not offered to help some time ago..."

* * *

_During the early evening hours, Lincoln was sitting in the living room watching some TV before dinnertime. While he was doing that, the front door opened up and Lynn w_ _alked_ _inside with her gym bag slung on her shoulder._

" _Oh, hey there, Lynn." Lincoln greeted her, "Back from another night of babysitting?"_

" _Yeah, and it was real fun one..." Lynn said sarcastically following a growl._

_She stepped over to the living room, plopped her bag on the nearby chair and joined alongside her brother on the couch._

" _Wait, so tonight didn't go so well?" Lincoln asked._

" _Gee, what gave you that impression?" Lynn questioned in return, sarcasm again dripping from every word._

_She growled again, but then she sighed and flopped back first on the couch, with the back of her head resting on the pillow on the end._

" _Ugh...after tonight, maybe this whole babysitting thing really isn't the cut of my jib." Lynn said._

" _Wait, what now?" Lincoln expressed bewilderingly, scooting closer to his sister, "Hold up, Lynn, what happened tonight?"_

_Lynn shook her head from side to side, "Let's just say I now know why our older sisters dreaded looking after those Fox quintuplets themselves and why they set me up with them at first as a means of getting back at me for sabotaging their babysitting clients."_

_Lincoln was getting more confused by the second, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand, Lynn. I thought things were going well when it comes to babysitting those kids. I know that our older sisters have said that you're like the perfect babysitter for them unlike how they were."_

_Lynn scoffed, "Make that 'used to be' the perfect babysitter. Now? Not so much. These last few nights up until tonight they've went from being easy to wrangle to an unruly scrum. It's like they assumed that they could get away with more under my watch knowing I can be as rowdy as them."_

_She sat up, stretched her limbs and s_ _ighed_ _._

" _Looks like I'm gonna have to call Mr. and Mrs. Fox and tell them that this now makes five Loud girls who can't keep those brats in line. Yep, I'm throwing in the towel with them, then I'll have a talk with our older sisters where I'm gonna tell them I'm quitting the whole babysitting shtick altogether"_

_Such an admission_ _shocked Lincoln to his core. Lynn was a lot of things, some positive and negative, but a quitter was not one of them, and he wasn't going to stand to see her be like this._

" _Lynn, are you for real? You're going to let one bad night question if you can be a good babysitter at all? The Lynn Loud I've known all my life doesn't take defeat so easily. She gets right back up on her feet and charges back head on until she is victorious and brags about it to every living being around her." Lincoln said filled with trademark confidence._

_He thought that would light something up in Lynn to reconsider withdrawing herself from the babysitting game._ _But one look at her showed that it didn't appear to faze her._

" _Linc, not that don't get or appreciate what you're saying, but this goes beyond the insanity I went through tonight." Lynn said, "Just as I said already, this had been building up with those Fox kids for a while now, and tonight wasn't the first bad babysitting experience of mine. My very first stab at this was a complete nightmare for the two_ _kids I looked after, and it's something I've only recently recognized."_

" _Do I dare wonder what exactly you did?" Lincoln tentatively asked._

_Lynn chuckled nervously, "Well...I don't think forcing them into lucha libre, making them drink raw eggs or telling them every detail about my t_ _ibia_ _injury constitutes as good babysitting traits on my end."_

_Her chuckling trailed off into a doubtful_ _grimace across her face. Again, Lincoln was not going to settle seeing Lynn put herself in such a defeatist state of mind and an idea that came across his mind made him think he knew just how to change things around._

" _You know, I think I know what might be going on when it comes to those Fox quints, Lynn. Now, obviously_ _I_ _don't know them personally, so I could be way off base, but I'm thinking they're rowdy not because that's who they are naturally, but because they assumed that_ _they can get away with such actions through having the numbers advantage. I don't care if you're the best babysitter in the world, handling five kids at once is always going to be a challenge." Lincoln posited._

_Lynn contemplated what her brother was saying, "You think so? Also, I'm sensing where you are perhaps going with this..."_

" _Yep, I'm suggesting that maybe next time I can come along with you to help out." Lincoln offered up, "I've been thinking about e_ _ngaging in_ _some proper_ _babysitting duties for while now, not including the times I look after our younger sisters that is."_

_In that moment, Lynn liked what Lincoln was proposing. At the same time, though, him mentioning that he'd been thinking about doing something like this did make her recall on two occasions she forcibly impeded his own chances at babysitting opportunities._ _The first case was_ _when she took umbrage over their older sisters approaching him first_ _to take up such responsibilities and the other was when those same sisters were chastising Lynn for her rough methods during her first try at it, and when Lincoln tried volunteering in taking part, she chucked her football at him, effectively proving the point their older sisters were driving home to Lynn. Now that Lincoln was offering to help out this time around, Lynn felt accepting his assistance would be a nice way to make it up to him._

" _So are you serious about this, Lincoln?" She asked._

" _Sure I am!" Lincoln answered happily, "We probably might have to discuss things with our_ _older sisters first to see if they would approve of such arrangements."_

" _Actually, we don't need such a discussion."_

_Turning over in the direction from which that voice belonging to Lori originated, Lynn and Lincoln saw her plus Leni, Luna and Luan standing by just over in the dining room._

" _Sorry, we didn't mean to listen in!" Leni said embarrassed._

" _Yeah, but we do like hearing what you're offering to do, Lincoln." Luan added more positively._

" _I'd say you have our full endorsement on that front, bro." Luna said as she gave out a thumbs up to him, then glanced over to her younger sister, "I mean, so long as you're cool with that, Lynn."_

" _You kidding me? Tackling those quints with my little bro here?" Lynn_ _said before she grabbed Lincoln into a headlock and noogied him, "I'm on board with that!"_

" _Uh, Lynn?" Lori admonished._

_The disapproving tone of her oldest sister's voice made Lynn put a stop in the noogie in a heartbeat. Even if she was a part of the whole babysitting_ _enterprise, she still had to prove that she can curb her more aggressive tendencies and be more maternal in nature._

" _Oh, uh, sorry about that, Lincoln." Lynn said apologetically, "But in all seriousness, I do appreciate and accept your help."_

" _It's no problem, Lynn. I'm ready whenever you need me to be." Lincoln said confidently._

_Giving her brother a nice, and perhaps relieved smile, Lynn patted Lincoln on his back all while their older sisters looked on proudly, both from adding another member to their babysitting ranks and for Lincoln convincing Lynn to stick around within those ranks._

* * *

"And it turned out you were right. Even just one additional helping hand is enough to bring those quints down a notch and keep them in line." Lynn said.

"Well, having some experience looking after our younger sisters who are a little less unruly does help on my end." Lincoln noted.

"Yeah, true that." Lynn agreed, taking a second to stretch herself out, "All right, our break lasted long enough. Let's snag a little bit of water and then we'll charge onward!"

Lincoln nodded and followed his sister back inside their house, whereupon after some quick hydration, Lynn brought her brother to the backyard, where there was a pile of balls set up.

"So, what's next for..."

Lincoln couldn't finish his sentence when he saw a soccer ball unexpectedly whizzing toward him. Out of instinct alone, he raised his hands up and caught it only a couple of inches before it collided with his face.

"Ha, nice save, Lincoln!" Lynn complemented, "Now think fast again!"

After the soccer ball, Lynn then tossed a football in Lincoln's direction. He only had just enough time to put down the soccer ball so he could snatch as was hurtling his way.

"Lynn, what are you…?" Lincoln attempted to get out.

"Service!" Lynn shouted.

Next, she hit a volleyball up in the air and again, Lincoln had very little time to react, but he did bat that one back up toward his sister.

"Wow, nice going!" Lynn told him, "You were on point every step of the way!"

"Lynn, mind telling me what you were doing just now?!" Lincoln shouted out just ever so slightly annoyed.

"No need to get all huffy on me, Lincoln. Just wanted to engage in an on the spot test of your reflexes and reaction time, which I must say again were on point!" Lynn explained and reiterated her complementary remarks, "And speaking of reflexes..."

Briefly assuming a three-point stance, Lynn grew a devious smile on her face and charged head on toward her now petrified brother. However, whatever she may have planned came to a screeching halt when a jarring sensation of pain was felt in her leg that stopped her right in her tracks. She fell down into a sitting position and groaned, causing Lincoln to rush over by her side.

"Lynn, what's wrong?" He asked her worriedly.

"Oh, don't get so worked up, Linc." Lynn said, trying to put on her standard 'tough girl' act, "I only pulled a muscle is all. No big deal."

She tried to stand up, but she hissed when another surge of pain shot through her leg the moment she tried putting any weight on it, causing her to sit back down again.

"Lynn, it does seem like it's a big deal if you can't even stand up." Lincoln emphasized to her, "Here, why don't I help out?"

He turned around and gestured to Lynn to get up onto his back, something she's done for him plenty of times before. At first, Lynn was going to raise objections to this and insist she was fine. But with the pain perhaps getting to her, she put her pride aside and gingerly got to her feet long enough to put her arms around Lincoln and then he hooked his arms under her legs. He stood up and almost nearly lost his balance for a moment, but eventually steadied himself with the full weight of his sister on his back.

"You're kind of heavy..." Lincoln remarked wryly.

Lynn laughed briefly and flicked the side of her brother's head, "You better be saying that because I'm full of muscle!"

"You might be full of something, all right..." Lincoln commented teasingly.

"Oh, hush up, now." Lynn said while grinning and placed her arms on top of Lincoln's head, "Just take me back inside if that's what you're planning on doing."

With that round of playful sibling banter concluded, Lincoln set a course for returning inside the house with Lynn on his back. Again, this was something of a role reversal and it admittedly felt a little awkward for Lynn having be the one who was being carried by her little brother instead of vice versa. But in a way, this could be seen as Lincoln giving back to her for how much she'd been helping him out, like when she was by his side during middle school orientation…

* * *

_Today had been quite an interesting one for Lincoln. He and Clyde had spent the day at Royal Woods Middle School for an orientation program so they could see what it will be like going there the following year. On top of that, Lynn had accompanied them and gave out_ _some_ _advice all while_ _regaling embarrassing stories about some unfortunate schmuck who had a rough first year at middle school._

_However, that advice backfired and Lincoln and Clyde thought they'd gotten on the wrong side on some of the kids there, each of them telling the pair to meet them at the blacktop at the end of the day, implying a beat down was coming to them. Instead, those aforementioned kids were only making Lincoln and Clyde sweat as if they were putting them through some kind of_ _time honored middle school initiation ritual. But the most surprising aspect of the whole day was when Lynn eventually admitted that she was the kid in those stories she told them earlier. She confessed to having a real tough first year of middle school of her own and that she felt the need to toughen herself in order to get by._

_Now with the day concluded, and them having walked Clyde back to his house, Lynn and Lincoln set off for their own home as well, and settled in talking some more about what went on._

" _So, how was that for your first unofficial day of middle school, Lincoln?" Lynn asked._

" _Uh...it sure was an experience, I'll say that much." Lincoln answered, "But I'd like to ask more about_ _your first year if it's not too much trouble,_ _since that's still kind of weighing on my mind._ _"_

" _Um...well, I guess not. Like what?" Lynn wondered a little tentatively._

" _Like for instance why didn't you ever say anything about it until today? Did you never tell anybody else what you went through?" Lincoln asked._

_Lynn took a moment to exhale_ _before answering,_ _"Well, to address your second question, yeah, I did talk privately to Mom, Dad_ _and our older sisters about it during that very year and sought their help and advice. As far as to why I never said anything to you in that time, I guess partly it was because you were still going through elementary school and would not understand what I was going through. But since you came to my school today, I suppose I had to eventually tell you before you ever had to experience anything like I went through come your first year there when that time comes."_

" _Oh...well, let me ask you this next: do you expect me to toughen myself up like you did in order to get ready for whatever may lay ahead for me once I do start attending middle school?" Lincoln wondered._

_Lynn thought it over for a minute, then she turned to her brother and smiled, "Honestly, if the fact that you and Clyde were kind of a hit with some of those kids there, maybe you won't have to be. On a related note, I guess I was really wrong about those business cards and cookies you two made, because they did seem to help out in winning some favor over to you."_

_Lincoln struck a confident posture, "Guess that means you can never doubt the ingenuity of Clincoln McCloud!"_

" _All right now, don't let that get to your head." Lynn said, chuckling and jabbing her brother on the shoulder._

_For another minute or two, Lynn and Lincoln simply went about walking back home without much else to say. Then, there was something that the only Loud boy did wonder if there was something his sister could do for him._

" _Lynn, can I ask you one last thing?" Lincoln inquired._

" _You just did so, little bro." Lynn joked around, then wanted to know for real, "But really, what is it?"_

_Lincoln chortled at_ _Lynn's literal initial reaction, but quickly reverted to a more serious tone, "Well, you have one more year in middle school right as I'll be in my first year, right?"_

_Lynn nodded, "True that."_

" _Okay, so...this will be sort of embarrassing to ask of you and I'll totally get it if you turn down my request..." Lincoln began with, his facial expression looking unsure as he went on, "But if it isn't too much trouble, you won't mind_ _if you kept a watchful eye on me should anything ever happen to me?"_

_Lynn grinned and laughed a little, "You're making it sound like you want me to be your bodyguard or guardian angel."_

_Lincoln chuckled with a mix of humor and regret, "Well, you know, not really and I'm not asking you to stick around me at all times or anything like that, but...no, you're right, it's pretty dumb of me to suggest that. I should really learn to handle things myself and not lean on you too much. So, I don't blame you for not wanting to..."_

" _No, I get what you're saying, Lincoln." Lynn said, cutting off her brother's marathon explanation and gripping her hand on his shoulder, "And no, I wouldn't actually mind kind of being on the lookout for you during that time and still showing you the ropes, too. I'd offer to do that even if you didn't ask me to. While you're right in that you should be able to learn to handle tough situations on your own, I'll gladly be there for you at the same time while I'm still as long as I'm still attending middle school myself."_

" _You would?" Lincoln said sounding hopeful, "Even if whatever situation I find myself in turns out to entirely be my fault?"_

" _Doubly so, just so I can make sure you don't repeat the same dumb mistake twice...and maybe rub it in your face while I'm at it!" Lynn replied b_ _oastfully._

_She yanked Lincoln over to her and mussed around with his hair, but soon after she wrapped her arms around him into a firm embrace._

" _But really, no one's gonna mess with you when I'm around. They'll regret doing so and then some." Lynn told her brother in a heartfelt manner._

_Lincoln smiled as he welcomed both the embrace and her confirmation of keeping an eye on him during that crucial first year of middle school. He sighed in relief while he returned the hug._

" _Thanks, Lynn. That means a lot to me, even if I sounded a little desperate when asking you." He said in thanks._

" _Don't mention it, Linc." Lynn responded, "Now let's get back home before too many witnesses see us being all mushy and stuff."_

" _Too late, dudes."_

_Hearing that very characteristically raspy voice belonging to Luna, Lynn and Lincoln saw that they'd been so engrossed in their act of walking and talking that not only were they already_ _at their home_ _, but Vanzilla_ _was_ _pulled up on the drive_ _way, where not only their rocker sister was inside of and sticking out the window of one of the passenger seats, but that all of their remaining sisters were also packed inside and apparently having seen and heard at least the latter portion of their conversation._

" _You know, you two are literally cute together when you can be." Lori stated from the driver's seat._

" _Yeah, and what of it?" Lynn humorously fired back, getting a laugh out of Lincoln, too._

* * *

In the few minutes since they both returned inside, Lincoln went above and beyond in treating Lynn and her injury, regardless of how minor it may have been. She was laid out on the couch with a pillow underneath the leg of which she'd pulled a muscle on and moments beforehand, Lincoln had massaged that particular region of her leg on top of that.

"Lincoln, you don't need to go this far. It's not like I tore a hamstring or ruptured any ligaments or tendons here. This is only something that's quite minor and will heal itself shorty." Lynn said.

"Are you of all people going to complain about having me acting like a servant to you for this little while?" Lincoln questioned her.

Lynn chuckled lightly, "Eh, you got a point there."

Following sufficient enough treatment, Lincoln joined his sister on the couch for a simple spot of relaxation.

"Mind if I ask you what in the heck you were planning on doing to me just as you pulled that muscle of yours?" Lincoln asked, "It seemed to me you were gonna straight up tackle me, which if you'll pardon my bluntness, does not have any exercise value at all for me."

"Nah, that wasn't my aim, Lincoln. It was gonna be nothing more than a head fake where I'd stop at the last possible moment before actually making any contact with you." Lynn explained, "Consider it another reflex test of mine just like with all those balls that I sent your way."

"Ah...well, okay then." Lincoln said simply and left it at that.

After that clarification, the two resumed in kicking back and relaxing for the time being. Then, Lincoln heard his sister chuckling again.

"Huh? What's so funny, Lynn?" Lincoln asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just...even though you really didn't need to go as far for me as you have just now, it doesn't change the fact that I appreciate it anyway, Lincoln." Lynn said admirably, "You're a good little brother, you know that?"

Lincoln grinned, "Oh...thanks, Lynn. I'm glad you feel that way toward me. I also know that's how you feel even if wasn't entirely related to you or our sisters like you showed when I cast some brief doubts about how much of a brother I really was to everyone..."

* * *

_It had been a day of revelations, discovery and self-introspection for Lincoln Loud. For a brief period of time, he wondered if he even was truly befitting of that surname based on how the day progressed. What started out as a curiosity as to why the birth story portion of his baby book was empty turned into an amusing and at times uneasy journey how he was brought into this world and if he really fit in the family he's know all his life._

_Part of that journey for Lincoln involved asking his older sisters what they remember about his birth story, particularly after his parents were so vague and evasive in own their explanation. Some of their remembrances were quite strange, but one made him feel somewhat distressed to the point he assumed there was a chance that he wasn't a true, full-blooded Loud. Luckily, those fears were put to rest when his parents did admit he was their natural born son and the only reason they didn't_ _explain everything in full earlier and as to why his baby book's birth story entry was blank was due to the top secret events that also occurred on that day. After all, only a scintilla of kids could ever say in private that they were born with the assistance of America's Commander-in-Chief, or more so by his First Lady, as they were traveling to a secret bunker in Royal Woods._

_But even with all that knowledge at hand, Lincoln's day was entirely done just yet. There was one older sister he never had a chance to talk about such subject manner and was curious as to what she knew, if anything at all._

_Peeking just inside the confines of Lynn and Lucy's bedroom, Lincoln saw Lynn busy lifting a pair of dumbbells in an alternating fashion. She looked to be having her hands full figuratively and literally, but for Lincoln this was a topic too significant to delay right now._

" _Hey, uh, Lynn?" He inquired to her._

_Lynn turned her attention to her brother, "What?"_

" _Is is possible that I can talk to you for a moment?" Lincoln asked._

" _Maybe..." Lynn said ambiguously, not breaking her focus in lifting, "I mean, it is possible, but I am in the middle of pumping some iron."_

" _I know, but this is something that's very important to me and I'm really hoping you can spare some time of yours." Lincoln implored._

_Lynn took another quick glance at Lincoln. There was a tone of_ _pleading and almost helplessness that wasn't too common with her brother, especially given it was even less common for him to turn to her for any serious talks. Sighing a little, she decided to acquiesce to his request._

" _Okay, fine. I can probably lift and talk at the same time. What is it?" She said._

_Lincoln stepped fully inside his sister's room, "Um, well...do you know anything about my birth story?"_

_Lynn briefly paused lifting the second Lincoln's inquiry came through. This was certainly not the kind of subject she was expected to delve into._

" _Doubt it." She said once a moment of thought passed by and resumed lifting the dumbbells, "I was only two years old at the time, Lincoln. My memory wasn't that quite developed yet. Why are you asking this?"_

" _Well, you see, I spent most of today asking our older sisters if they can tell me what they remember from the day I was born, and some of their responses were...strange, to say the least." Lincoln answered._

" _Like?" Lynn asked._

" _Okay, so Lori first said that I was delivered by a scientist, Leni claimed I was carried by an eagle and Luna mentioned something about a bunch of guys in suits surrounding our house once I was brought home." Lincoln recounted._

_Lynn chuckled a little, "Ah, so you finally learned about the super secretive origins of the events surrounding_ _everything, huh?"_

" _Uh, yeah. I learned the truth from Mom and Dad not too long ago." Lincoln said, then he took a pause, "Wait, I thought you said you didn't remember much of anything from that day."_

" _Not at the time, no. Again, I was only two when that happened." Lynn reiterated, "But I was let in on everything a couple of years later from our older sisters, so yeah, I do know all that went down."_

_At the moment, Lincoln simply released a small sigh and looked around awkwardly, rubbing his arm anxiously._

" _Hey, I noticed you didn't mention what Luan knows about that day." Lynn spoke up once she realized that._

" _Oh, right..." Lincoln said, snapping himself out of the little trance he was in, "Well, she said at first that Mom and Dad were thinking they were expecting another girl and even suggested the idea that they brought home the wrong baby."_

_Again, Lincoln paused for a few seconds. This one was more pronounced to the point that Lynn looked at him once more and_ _slowed her pace in lifting_ _._

" _Lincoln?" She asked, worry in her voice becoming apparent._

" _I have to admit, once she said that..." Lincoln began saying, groaning uncomfortably in between, "It made me think for a little bit that I might've been adopted."_

_With those words, Lynn put a halt to everything as Lincoln sat down on the floor and sighed distressingly._

" _Knowing the truth, I know that's not how everything really panned out, but for a little while..." He said wistfully, "I know that you and our family might get a little sick of me saying this, but there are those times that I wonder if I truly belong in this family, being the only boy surrounded by ten girls and all, and when Luan told me what she thought she knew...it made me briefly question if I was really your brother at all."_

_And that right there_ _did it for Lincoln. Despite some efforts to hold everything in, once shaky, labored breath acted as a prelude for a pair of tears to form in his eyes. Following that, Lynn knew that pumping any additional iron can wait. She put her dumbbells aside and knelt down in front of him._

" _Aw, Lincoln, of course you are my brother. You admitted it yourself that you know you're a natural born member of this family." Lynn told him in a voice more sweet than she usually conveys._

_Next, she sat down by Lincoln's side and put her arm around him._

" _And so what if it turned out you were actually adopted? That won't matter to me at all. I don't care if you're one half, one quarter, one tenth, one one-hundredth, one one-thousandth or not related to me even in the slightest. You are my little brother and I never want to imagine my life without you."_

_Punctuating those kindhearted words from Lynn came in the form of bringing that very little brother of hers right close into a hug. Sniffling a couple of times, Lincoln silently returned the hug with one of his own._

" _Aww…"_

_That faint little utterance caught the pair's attention and seconds after that, they would be caught off guard when the bedroom door swung wide open all of a sudden to reveal Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan collapsing onto the floor in a heap._

" _Ugh, nice going, Luna..." Lori grumbled._

" _Hey, no need to rag on me, brah! Things were going just peachy until Leni startled me when she spoke just now!" Luna shot back._

" _What?" Leni said miffed, "I c_ _ouldn't_ _help but think that what we heard was so totes cute!"_

" _Well, no matter who's to blame, we certainly took quite a tumble of a trip!" Luan joked._

_Following a groan from the three eldest sisters, they as well as Luan all brought themselves back up to their feet._

" _Uh, were you guys listening in on us?" Lynn asked._

" _Oh, maybe just a little?" Leni_ _said sounding a_ _pologetic_ _._

" _Yeah, more like almost literally every single word that was spoken between you two." Lori issued in correction, "But since we're all here now, we may as well sit in, too."_

_With that said, the four oldest of the Loud sisters joined in alongside their two younger siblings, with Lynn moving over to the side a bit as the four of them gathered closer to Lincoln._

" _So, did we h_ _ear_ _everything correctly, bro? You were worried that you may have been adopted?" Luna asked him._

_Lincoln nodded meekly, "Kind of. I know it's not true, but for that fleeting moment..."_

" _Well, this pretty much may as well be my fault for implying that in the first place to you..." Luan admitted regretfully, moving just that little bit closer to her brother and putting a hand on his back, "Look, I didn't mean to suggest that may be the case, Lincoln. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad and I'm really sorry if I did."_

" _It's all right, Luan." Lincoln said, "It was a little worrisome at first, but I'm glad to have known the truth about the day I was born."_

_Luan smiled, "And we're glad that day came."_

" _Yeah, having a baby bro was one of the best things to ever happen in our lives." Luna added proudly._

" _Totes! We love having you around!" Leni said jovially._

" _And I can probably safely speak for everyone that we echo the sentiment s_ _hared_ _by Lynn that even if you hardly had any direct relation to us, you are still our brother and that will never change." Lori stated confidently, "Though I will say that we're particularly glad that you are our brother by blood."_

_Then, one by one, each of the sisters joined into a group hug of Lincoln, though in Lynn's case she had to muscle her way in some._

" _Hey, make way, ladies! He's just as much my little bro as he is yours!" She said humorously._

_Everyone shared a laugh, as well as Lincoln breathing a happy sigh, knowing that he was indeed a true blue Loud in every sense._

* * *

"I was glad to be reminded that I really am a genuine member of this family." Lincoln said, smiling in Lynn's direction, "Thanks again, Lynn."

Lynn smiled back, "You know, normally I love taking full credit for anything I may have done, but obviously I was far from the only one who assured you of that. Still, it's good to know I helped in my little way."

"You certainly did, Lynn." Lincoln said appreciatively, "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna leave you be while I finally get a shower and get properly dressed. It's still pretty early, so I may as well get it done before the family morning rush arrives."

"Ah, go right ahead." Lynn told him.

Giving his sister a quick pat on her shoulder, Lincoln left her alone as he bounded up the stairs. While he took care of business, Lynn flopped onto her back and sighed happily.

"Why do you have to be such a good brother, Lincoln?" She said to herself with a small laugh, "Not that I'm complaining or anything like that...you truly are of the good sort and I wouldn't want it any different."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that makes four complete! One more and then we change the format of this story some. Until that time, see you later!


	5. Roadside Reminiscence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! At last, we've reached the last of the initial first few chapters of this unexpectedly epic saga, should you call it such.
> 
> This chapter features Lori and the flashbacks are based on "Get the Message", "One of the Boys" and "Party Down".
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

"Well...this has been certainly quite the day we've had, huh, Lincoln?"

"You could say that, Lori..."

This exchange between the Loud family's eldest sister and the sole brother may have been an understatement and then some.

At the moment, Lori was driving herself and Lincoln back home from Great Lakes City following a visit with Bobby, Ronnie Anne and the whole Casagrande clan. But as implied from the aforementioned back and forth, it was far from a typical trip down there.

From the start earlier in the morning, Lori and Lincoln's trip almost nearly didn't happen at all due to some catastrophic problems on the part of Vanzilla. The combined efforts of Lynn Sr. and Lana working everything out resulted in a near two hour delay from the initial moment of departure. Because of that, it was suggested to Lori and Lincoln that they might want to push back their trip to another day, but Lori stubbornly refused to change plans and went through with it once Vanzilla's troubles had been fixed.

Thankfully, the actual journey to the city went smoothly and upon arrival, five hours later than initially planned due to the earlier two hour delay and the three hours it took to get there, things sort of got a little better. After settling in, Lori and Lincoln split off to hang out with Bobby and Ronnie Anne, respectively. But the good times weren't going to roll on much longer, as both outings came to a screeching halt due to Lori suffering a sprained left ankle and in Lincoln's case, he got the unpleasant experience of having a softball making contact in his nether regions by Ronnie Anne, which she insisted was an accident, though Lincoln did have the tiniest of suspicions to the contrary knowing her proclivities of playing and just being on the rough side.

Due to their injuries, most of the rest of Lori and Lincoln's time was spent cooped up at the apartment as opposed to experiencing the sights and sounds of the city. After a few more hours, the time had arrived for them to leave. But just to compound the luck they've been having, Vanzilla ended up being towed away, much like during a previous trip to the city before, and if that wasn't enough, more mechanical issues were also discovered, resulting in another two hour delay. Given that it was past 5:00 in the afternoon by then, the Casagrandes had generously offered Lori and Lincoln to perhaps stay the night, on top of paying for all of Vanzilla's troubles and even offering a little more for gas, but much like when she insisted in pressing onward with the trip in the first place, Lori figured that she and Lincoln can make it home well enough.

At the time that sounded manageable. Now? With each passing town and mile after mile of rural countryside as the sun was setting, there were serious doubts about making it before dark. At the very least they made it past the Michigan state line half an hour ago, but were still a good hour and a half away from Royal Woods.

With a heavy sigh, Lori pulled over to the side of a barren stretch of road.

"Uh, what are you doing, Lori?" Lincoln curiously asked.

"Well, if it hasn't been made obvious by now, Lincoln, we're not going to make it back home before sunset, let alone in time for dinner." Lori responded.

"I don't know about that." Lincoln disagreed, "I'd say we can make it. Besides, I'm not sure why making it home before the sun sets is something that's important to you."

Lori sighed again, "Well...to tell you the truth, the idea of me driving after dark while we're still pretty far from home or not even within the city limits of Royal Woods does literally make me feel pretty uncomfortable."

"It does?" Lincoln inquired, getting a simple nod from Lori as he also noted the uneasiness in his oldest sister's face, "And you didn't say so earlier? If you did, that could've made staying with the Casagrandes for the night all but a lock."

"You're telling me..." Lori said, dryly chuckling, "Yet in my infinite wisdom I assumed we could make it. It's been one thing after another with us today, huh?"

She shook her head and had been so caught up in thought over all the insanity that's occurred over the day for a few seconds, she inadvertently bonked her head on the car horn, and the subsequent blare of said horn put a startle to her and Lincoln.

"Ow..." Lori muttered, rubbing her forehead, "As if having a sprained ankle earlier wasn't enough. Good thing it wasn't the right one that got hurt too badly, otherwise we'd have even more troubles getting home than we already have. You know, because it would be harder to put pressure on the gas pedal and all."

She exhaled through her nose and rubbed her temple with her fingers a little more, then she looked over to Lincoln.

"Speaking of getting hurt, how you doing with your...ahem, issues, Lincoln?" Lori asked, trying her hardest to stifle any laughing, which didn't go unnoticed to him.

"I'm glad to hear you're getting some kind of amusement in asking that, Lori." Lincoln said deep in sarcasm, "That was some of the worst pain I'd ever experienced. Do you realize how much ice was needed to soothe everything?"

"Oh, relax, I wasn't trying to sound like I was amused or anything...mostly." Lori teased.

That didn't help with Lincoln's mood at all, if that was even the intention.

"But really, all joking aside, are you doing okay, Lincoln?" Lori reiterated with a more compassionate tone.

Lincoln sighed, "Yeah, I think so...and I know you weren't trying to have fun at my expense. At the same time, though, it is kind of difficult talking about any... _discomfort down there_...to a girl, even a sister of mine."

"No, I understand. I mean, not literally like _that_ , but you know what I mean." Lori said as she patted her brother's shoulder, "Anyway, that's enough musing about bodily harm. We really need to figure out now what we're going to do for tonight. It's not like we can turn around and make it back to the city or anything like that knowing again how uneasy about driving after dark I am at this time."

"Well, I guess the most obvious thing we can do is find someplace to stay overnight." Lincoln suggested.

"Yeah, that seems like our only option right about now." Lori agreed, "In fact, do me favor, Lincoln. While I call home and fill in everyone on our situation, go look up and see if you can find a relatively cheap hotel or motel worth staying in."

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Lori stepped out of Vanzilla with her phone at hand to make that call, while at the same time Lincoln brought out his own phone to search for affordable hotels in the general vicinity. There were a decent amount of options around, but affordability wasn't quite as commonplace. Plus, there was this niggling question about the current situation that he and Lori were in the middle of, so Lincoln took a moment to look up an answer for that.

A couple of minutes later, Lori stepped back in and buckled herself up again, but if the fact she was rubbing her eyes and emitted a low groan in annoyance, something clearly was up.

"Everything okay, Lori?" Lincoln asked.

"Ugh...this day just keeps getting better and better..." Lori grumbled sarcastically.

"Well, not to upset you any further, but I've got some bad news to share on my end." Lincoln said disappointingly, "The cheapest hotel I could find was only about $50 a night and I don't think we have enough money between us for that. Not only that, but I did a quick check and found out that generally speaking, you have to be at least 18 years old in order to check in to one in the first place."

"Yeah, I got told literally the same thing just now from Mom..." Lori said in a similarly distressed tone, "Still, I told her we'll figure something out and we will."

Both released a sigh, but that wouldn't be the only sound shared between them. Though temporary shelter for the night was still a big question mark, one other urge that could be solved in the interim was casually reminded upon both of their stomachs growling.

"Well, since as you said before that we're not going to be home for dinner, might as well grab something to eat for ourselves now, right?" Lincoln said following a laugh.

Lori smiled lightly in return, "Sure, I suppose so. I'm thinking once we reach the nearest town we just go for whatever fast food joint we can find. Better to get something cheap and fulfilling in the situation we're in. Sound good?"

Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, I'm down with that."

With their next step settled on, Lori resumed in driving in search of satisfactory evening sustenance for herself and Lincoln.

"Hey, Lincoln?" Lori spoke up following a period of silence, "I know we've had a long and pretty rough day, but I must commend you for handling things so well. Lesser kids of your age would've cracked by now, but not you. You can really be of the patient sort."

"Heh, thanks, Lori. And similarly, you've held up good on your end, too." Lincoln complimented his sister in return. "The only time you really came close to losing it was right after when Vanzilla got towed and then there were found more problems with this old, yet lovable heap. For a second there you almost looked like you wanted to give the mechanics one of your signature human pretzels."

Lori laughed, "Maybe, but I've said before that those days of doing just that are long behind me, especially after that little talk we had when I came close to doing the same to you..."

* * *

_A hectic afternoon had come and gone for Lincoln and he assumed that he found sanctuary within his bedroom._

_Part of that afternoon for Lincoln was spent trying to prevent Lori from hearing a less-than-courteous voicemail he left on her phone directly following him writing a letter declaring her the 'worst sister ever' when she appeared to intentionally destroy his pair of virtual reality gaming goggles. However, much to his surprise, Lori ended up buying a new pair of goggles for him and even apologized for breaking the original pair, though her apology did come off fairly disingenuous. Thus, the clandestine operation to delete the voicemail before Lori listened in was a go._

_Ultimately, it came off like a complete waste of time because Lori deleted the message herself before much could be heard. She did, on the other hand, discover the 'worst sister ever' letter in the bathroom and she absolutely lost it, declaring her intent in turning Lincoln into the shape of a pretzel of the human variety._

_In the time since, Lincoln holed himself up in his room and hoped that Lori had lost interest in such physical retribution, though there was that small part of him that worried she was biding her time until he least expected her to then come along and strike._

_He feared for the worst when heard his bedroom door being firmly knocked rather suddenly. There were no guesses in Lincoln's mind as to who was paying him a visit._

_With an anxious gulp, he reluctantly reached for the doorknob and opened it. Sure enough, Lori was standing before him, although in a bit of change she bore a stern expression on her face, which was admittedly better than the full blown sense of outrage she gave out moments before._

" _Oh dear...hey, Lori." Lincoln said, chuckling sheepishly, "Well...looks like you're here to collect on something of a debt, right? All right, I'll accept that..."_

_Shutting his eyes, he shakily extended out his arms and awaited the feeling and sounds of his limbs and joints snapping and being twisted._

_He tensed up when Lori gripped onto his wrists and yanked him up in the air. But instead of getting all tied up, Lincoln felt himself being carried over and placed onto his bed. He opened his eyes to then see Lori close the door and then joined over next to him. In addition, the sternness of her face disappeared and in its place was a much more softened look._

" _Lori? What are you doing? Aren't you going to turn me into a human pretzel like you planned to?" Lincoln questioned._

" _Maybe I did for a l_ _ittle while_ _..." Lori conceded, then she let out a big sigh, "But in the time_ _that's passed, I took a moment to cool off and instead it might be better to just have a simple talk about...this."_

_She reached into one of the pockets of her shorts and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper, which turned out to be the ad-libbed letter that unleashed Lori's original bout of rage in the first place._

" _Now, I'm just going to ask you straight up: is this how you really feel about me, Lincoln? Am I literally the worst sister ever?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned about such an unseemly descriptor._

_Lincoln wasn't sure how to take this. To see his oldest sister_ _in a more calm and even distressed disposition in comparison to her fury from earlier threw him off a little. There was a small, paranoid and conspiratorial part within him that worried this might be a facade to lure him into a false sense of security before she'd have her way with him. But regardless, he quashed any internal fears, because for any faults of hers, Lori wasn't someone who'd straight up lie and deceive anyone in order to deliver physical harm_ _shortly thereafter._

_Exhaling, Lincoln looked straight up to Lori, "No, you're not the worst sister ever. I'd never see you or the rest of our sisters in such a way. I only wrote that in a spur of the moment while I wasn't thinking clearly. You do have your faults, but who doesn't? We all have our issues, but none of those matter in the long run, because_ _at the end of the day, we all love and respect each for who we really are."_

_Heartened by both those words and the fact that he didn't sound like he harbored much in the way of animosity on his end, Lori put an arm around Lincoln and drew him close to her for a brief moment. At the same time, she glanced over to his dresser where the new pair of virtual reality goggles she got him were placed._

" _Hey, out of curiosity, have you tried out your new gaming goggles yet?" Lori asked._

" _Huh? Oh, not yet. Between trying to make sure you didn't hear that voicemail I left you and avoiding your wrath for a little while, I didn't have the time to do so yet." Lincoln answered, again chuckling nervously._

" _Guess that would keep you_ _a little bit_ _occupied." Lori said regretfully._

_Lincoln agreed, "Maybe. But a_ _llow_ _me_ _to_ _ask you s_ _omething_ _, Lori. What changed? I mean, you were intent on doing me harm not too long ago for my own transgressions. Why have you seemingly reconsidered?"_

_Lori took a deep breath before giving her response, "Well, besides the fact that talking is literally a much better way to handle things, I also did some comparing and contrasting over everything that's happened today. Ultimately, what's worse: you accidentally going into my room without my permission, writing a scathing letter you now admit isn't based on your true feelings towards me and leaving a voicemail which I bet was based on that letter, or me threatening you with harm over going into my room,_ _me deliberately destroying your original pair of gaming goggles after I rudely shoved you out of the bathroom while I was on the phone and then finally again threatening you once I found that letter? If you ask me, there's simply no comparison as to who was more in the wrong today."_

_Before Lincoln could give a response to what he heard, Lori wrapped him up into a tight hug and resumed speaking._

" _Also, since I wasn't genuine at the time, I want to tell you right now that I really am sorry for breaking that first set of goggles of yours. No matter how upset I might've been at you in that moment, I shouldn't have used that anger as an excuse to wreck something of yours, particularly something that expensive. I do hope the new ones I bought_ _for you will suffice and again, I'm sorry."_

_Following her apology, Lori sighed once more, filled with a great amount of sorrow and regret for her actions. But soon after, she did feel a little better upon feeling Lincoln returned the hug she initiated._

" _It's okay, Lori, I forgive you." He said warmly, "And though you feel they aren't in the same category as what you did, I'm sorry too for everything on my end. You said it and I told myself this as well a little earlier, if I have any problems with you, I'll come up and talk to you about them, too."_

" _Sounds like a deal." Lori said with an upbeat chuckle._

_Soon after that, both let go of one another and faced each other._

" _Oh, by the way, in case you were curious, you probably wouldn't have heard much of what I said in that voicemail because for whatever reason of convenience, Luna happened to barge into my room playing her guitar wildly as I was on the phone going off. In any event, you would have gotten an unpleasant earful of somethin_ _g, just not entirely from me." Lincoln said._

" _Is that so?" Lori said sounding mildly amused, "Speaking of phones, another thing I've thought over is that there shouldn't be any reason for me preventing you from calling me on my phone should you ever need to, like for emergencies of anything like that. That's another thing I now regret saying to you and take back."_

_Lincoln was surprised to hear that, but nonetheless smiled, "Oh...well, thanks, Lori. I'll keep that in mind."_

_As their talk winded down, Lincoln shifted closer to Lori and leaned his head along her shoulder, while Lori in turn brought her arm back around her little brother affectionately. Talking really was the greatest option for settling issues as they both agreed on. It's certainly a lot better than threatening to turn one into that of form resembling a salty_ _bowtie shaped_ _treat, an anatomical impossibility_ _if there ever was one._

* * *

"Yeah, talking always the least risky and most fulfilling manner of dispute resolution." Lori said with a grin before getting more serious, "Also while we are on the subject of that discussion we had at that time, I want to emphasize again that if you are ever in some sort of emergency or anything similar and I'm the first or only option you have, don't ever hesitate in calling me. I'll drop everything and come straight to you."

"Would you?" Lincoln said very hopefully, "Even if you're doing something like going on a date with Bobby whenever he's in town or you're in the middle of some major game of golf?"

"If it literally means ensuring the safety, security and well being of my one and only little brother...yes, of course I would. Sure, Bobby, golfing and the like are important, but as long as I'm still living at home, my first and truest responsibility is to be there for all my siblings, you included, Lincoln." Lori answered with absolute determination and sincerity.

Fewer things said to him in recent memory mattered more to Lincoln than that ironclad promise signed, sealed and delivered by Lori. Had he not been constrained by the seatbeat over him and that little convenient fact that she was driving at the moment, he'd leap right over and hug her as tightly as he could. Alas, perhaps such affection will wait for another time.

In the time that since passed, the pair had arrived at the nearest town, where soon after they were treated in finding a very familiar eatery within.

"Hey, there's a Burpin' Burger right over there. How about it, Lincoln?" Lori asked.

"Sure, I'm down with that." Lincoln replied, "Though I must say I'm surprised there is a location all the way out here. I always thought they were mainly based around Southeastern Michigan."

"Actually, I don't think it's too much of a surprise when you think about it. After all, would Bobbie Fletcher have them as her sponsor if they were only a small time regional burger joint?" Lori pointed out, "And before you ask, I only happen to remember that because of the time Lana dragged us all along to one of our local Burpin' Burger locations where we also got snowed in briefly, not because I'm some secret racecar enthusiast."

"Yeah, I guess that can be the case." Lincoln said.

As that exchange wrapped up, Lori pulled up close to the burger joint.

"So, how should we do this, Lincoln? Shall we head inside and eat there, or should we use the drive thru and have everything on the go?" She asked.

"You know, let's head on in." Lincoln suggested, stretching out his limbs. "I think we both deserve to limber out the joints."

With that decided, Lori and Lincoln got on out of Vanzilla and made a path to the restaurant. But before getting too far, Lincoln came right up to his sister and gave her a big hug.

"Oh, what's this for, Lincoln?" Lori said taken a little off guard, though still pleasantly surprised.

Lincoln looked up at her, "Just my way of saying thanks for what you said earlier about coming to me if I ever needed to call you."

There were a lot of things Lori could say in response to those grateful words and the heartfelt gesture attached alongside with it. Instead, she took the simpler route of having a big smile on her face while she gave as much in return in her own hug as Lincoln had already done.

Following this moment of sibling affection, they let go of each other and headed on inside, where they observed only a handful of additional customers dining.

"How about you go and find us a table while I get our order?" Lori suggested to her brother.

"Yeah, sure." Lincoln said with a small nod.

As Lori approached the front counter, Lincoln claimed a booth over at the corner and sat down. Not too long after getting situated there, he checked over his phone and saw he got a couple of texts from Ronnie Anne, both teasingly asking how he's been holding up since his...incident from earlier in the day. With a scoffing chuckle mixing a little bit of derision and amusement, he responded in an equally playful manner.

Right as he was finishing sending his response, Lori came along and sat down with a tray holding their evening meals, consisting of a pair of Double Belchers, some fries and a couple of sodas.

For the most part, their meal was conducted in relative silence, though Lori was a little curious as to what Lincoln was doing on his phone just as she had arrived.

"Mind if ask what you were doing if it isn't much trouble?" She inquired.

"Well, if you really must know, Ronnie Anne had texted me in her typical fashion about, you know, _that_ moment when she claimed to 'accidentally' cause great harm _down there_." Lincoln answered, still having much discomfort, verbal and otherwise, about the incident.

Lori released an unintentional giggle that she tried to suppress, "Ah, you mean her little love tap?"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me? 'Love tap'? For one, who in the world says that? Second, it was hardly a 'little' anything no matter what you call it. Third, I thought you weren't trying to find amusement in this. And finally, how do you deduce love from any of this?!"

"Lincoln, relax..." Lori said somewhat dismissively, then she brought forward a humorous smile, "Though your denials are rather cute. They make me think you share the same feelings for her that she might've been expressing."

"Ugh...Lori, how many times must I explain this to you? Ronnie Anne and I are just friends!" Lincoln stated, frustration being raised in his voice, "Do you hear me? _Friends_! And we may ever only ever _be_ friends! You even suggesting that me getting hit down there by her, accident or not, in being some kind of sign of love is actually even worse than when you and our sisters claiming that her bullying me in the beginning was a sign that she liked me. I don't even care that ended up being true, the logic behind that still never made sense to me! So can you just drop it, already?!"

When he concluded with his rant, Lincoln groaned and soon experienced his own inadvertent bonking of his head, in his case making contact with the table.

"Ow, dang it…!" He grumbled.

Without giving it another second of thought, Lori shifted over from her side of the booth to where Lincoln was in order to check up on him.

"Lori, I'm fine if that's what you're about to ask." He said mixed in annoyance and admittedly in pain.

His insistence on being okay being declared, stubborn as it may have been, Lori left Lincoln be and moved back away from him.

"Okay..." Lincoln started saying, taking a deep breath. "Look, maybe I shouldn't have went off like that and once again, I don't think you were trying to get a rise out of me from... _that_. But regardless, be it that or with anything involving Ronnie Anne, how about we just let it go and move on?"

Lori's response was to simply give him a small smile and nod of the head in the affirmative before both resumed in finishing up their respective meals.

Once they were done, Lori took a quick glance at the watch she was wearing. Hoping to defuse any lingering tension and looking for an excuse to have a more pleasant topic of discussion, Lincoln seized on the opportunity.

"I'm surprised you still wear that." He commented.

"Why not? Knowing you're the one who got it for me, of course I still wear it and give it quite a lot of use." Lori said, chuckling a little, "And to think you got me this as a result of one of the strangest experiences you've been through in recent memory..."

* * *

_It was approaching 3:30 in the afternoon and Lincoln had only just now returned home from school. He opened up the front door and saw all his sisters gathered around the living room._

" _Hey there, you guys." He said, "Sorry I'm home a little late. Had to take care of some...uh, personal business."_

" _Eh, no big deal. It's not like we were waiting up on you or anything like that." Lynn said._

_Lincoln flashed a little smile in the direction and was going up the_ _stairs, only to stop a quarter of the way up when he was addressed to._

" _Actually, before you head up, Lincoln, do you mind if we talked to you for a moment?" Luan asked._

" _Uh...okay, I guess." Lincoln answered a little bit confused._

_He changed course and went over to the living room, then he put down his backpack near the side of the couch before sitting down._

" _So, what's up?" He asked._

" _Well, while you were gone, we though it'd be a good idea to ask you a little more about what happened the other night, dude." Luna said._

" _Yeah, we never actually knew why you were screaming and such. Did you have a nightmare?" Lana wondered._

_At first, Lincoln wasn't entirely sure about discussing the previous night's events, not so much because of what he dreamed about, but over what lead to him having that dream in the first place. He didn't think his sisters will take kindly to it, but ultimately, they did sound like they genuinely were curious as to what went on, so perhaps_ _it won't be too much of a challenge._

" _Well, yeah, I did have something of a bad dream. I wouldn't go as far as calling it a nightmare, but it far from pleasant, too." Lincoln admitted._

" _Aw...what was it about?" Leni asked maternally._

_Lincoln took a deep breath, "I guess I may as well start from the beginning. I was in my room and woke up to find Lisa saying she'd been pondering over something I said about wondering what it would've been like to have ten brothers, so she gave me a watch that allowed me to travel to another dimension so I can experience just that."_

" _Hmm...fascinating. A watch with the power to travel through different dimensions? Might be worth looking into for future research..." Lisa said contemplatively._

" _Uh, I'd argue against that, Lisa. Time_ _is something you'd really don't want to mess around with." Lincoln advised._

_Lisa shrugged, "Eh, you never know."_

" _So, ten brothers? What were they like?" Lucy asked, getting back to the main matter at hand._

" _Essentially, they were all boy versions of you guys." Lincoln explained, "They all had similar looks, hobbies and mannerisms. However, they were much more obnoxious, rude and rougher than any of you at your worst combined."_

" _Whoa...like how?" Luna inquired._

" _Well, it's interesting you ask that, Luna, because the boy version of you, Luke, was probably the nastiest of the bunch. Not only did he apparently flush Bun Bun down the toilet, but one morning when I went to use the bathroom, it was an absolute horror show because of how dirty is was and he did offer to assist in cleaning it...only for his definition of 'cleaning' turned out to be sticking my head down the toilet." Lincoln said, shuddering over_ _recalling_ _that last part._

" _For real? Yikes,_ _that's way harsh." Luna said, c_ _ringing in disgust_ _over such actions, "You know I'd never do something like that to you, right, bro?"_

" _No, of course not!" Lincoln agreed assuredly, "I wouldn't think you guys would ever do some of the awful things these brothers did to me, like another example I'll bring up with you, Leni. At one point in the dream, your boy version, Loni, laughed at me over a cramp that I got in my thumb."_

" _What?! That's, like, so mean!" Leni said_ _following a horrified gasp._

_Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, and if that wasn't bad enough, Lily's boy equivalent named Leon bit me right on that same thumb. Some other highlights, or low lights if you prefer, included_ _getting punched by Lynn and Lucy's brother variants for waking them up in the morning, having my pants pulled way up to my torso by Luan's far less funny male version Lane and probably was by far the worst thing that happened, having all ten of the brothers piling on me and giving me a simultaneous Dutch oven."_

" _Eww, gross! Talk about no class!" Lola said in utter revulsion._

" _Yeah, I'm not gonna disagree with that. Even I can admit that ten Dutch ovens sounds like overkill." Lynn added._

" _You're telling me." Lincoln dryly remarked, "Anyway, after some more tomfoolery,_ _I finally escaped out of that dimension and thought everything was back to normal. Instead, I walked into a completely different were I still had brothers, but this time they were really nice and caring towards me...but only because in this time around I had become a girl named Linka."_

_The moment Lincoln mentioned that part, the sisters tried their best in containing some giggling that was just begging to be let out. A brief struggle failed and it transformed into full blown laughter for a few seconds._

" _Yeah, yeah, I figured you'd get a more than a chuckle out of that." Lincoln said with a roll of his eyes,_ _though he too spared a small laugh on his end._

_After getting the laughing out of their systems, the sisters let out a group sigh._

" _Okay, since you're done, might as well wrap things up." Lincoln_ _stated, "So once that little disturbing moment came and went, that's when I woke up screaming and when you guys came rushing in to check up on me. And that was just before I said that I'd never complain about having sisters again, too."_

" _Yeah, not to mention when you stomped on Lori's watch, which I'm guessing was because you thought it was that watch Lisa gave you at the beginning of your dream, right? Then you really got Lori ticked off at you!" Luan joked around, "Get it? Ticked? Tock? Watch?"_

_A groan was shared among everyone, except curiously for Lori, who largely remained silent over the duration due to being focused solely on her phone the whole time._

" _So anyway, as odd as this might sound,_ _I kind of owe you guys an apology, because the only reason I think I had this dream in the first place was the fact I complained privately with Clyde wishing I had brothers because of some annoying things you did to me recently. Those include like when you all unanimously rejected ideas of mine when we discussed ways to spend the day together, or when you all smothered me in primping after I said that I was_ _about to_ _hang out with Ronnie Anne and that time when you went over the top in_ _taking care of me all because I got a cramp in my thumb from playing a handheld video game of mine." Lincoln said, smiling a little, "Actually, I'll admit to the last one not being annoying, just kind of more like an overreaction of sisterly care."_

_T_ _he smile on his face got just a little bigger as he slipped off from the couch so he could turn around and face all of his sisters._

" _And sure, you can indeed get on my nerves, but then again, I probably do the same to you all as well. But by comparison to all that went on in my dream from those terrible excuses of brothers, I'll take my current life with my sisters and all their foibles every time and every day of the week with no excuses. I wouldn't want it any other way."_

_Much like their brother, the sisters also now bore smiles on their faces upon hearing those words from him, and adding to the sentiment, he came on_ _back towards them while being welcomed into a signature group hug of theirs._

_Once the hug ended, most of the sisters got up and left so they could attend to their own business. But again, Lori remained in place still glued to her phone like the whole preceding discussion never even happened. Despite that, though, this was the perfect opportunity for Lincoln to do something very special for her._

" _Hey, uh, Lori?" He inquired to her._

" _Hmm?" Lori uttered, turning to her brother._

" _I know you must've heard some of what was talked about just now despite you not paying attention that much..." Lincoln started off with, "But there's is something I wanted to talk to you_ _specifically_ _about last night. It's about that watch of yours I stomped_ _on_ _and destroyed..."_

_Lori put her phone away and sighed, "You know, I wanted to do the same as well. Truth is, I've been thinking for a bit, and this may come as a shock to you, but I'm kind of going to literally let you off the hook for that. Yes, I'm not happy about it happening in the first place, even if it you didn't know it was mine in the first place. But maybe because I'm in a better mood now compared to then or whatever, I'm no longer demanding you pay me back for that watch and instead I'll get another one sometime later."_

_Lincoln was taken by surprise by that, but then he started laughing nervously, "Well...what if you don't have to wait until then?"_

_As Lori looked confused by that statement, Lincoln went over to his backpack, unzipped it and reached inside. He pulled out a small box and handed it over to his sister. She took it into her hands, staring at it curiously, then she opened it._

_When she did, her eyes grew wide as she saw a brand new watch within._

" _I know it's nothing special, but it's what I could get with the money I had at hand. Hopefully it's enough to act as an apology for me breaking your old one last night." Lincoln said, mixing regret with some hope._

_It didn't take too long for Lincoln to get his answer. Calmly putting the lid of the box back on top, Lori put it aside for a second so she could bring her little brother over into a hug._

" _It is special knowing who gave it to me." Lori said gratefully, "Thank you so much, Lincoln."_

* * *

"And I have used it almost every single day since then." Lori said, lifting her arm up to proudly show off the watch in more detail, "Thank you again for getting for me, Lincoln."

Lincoln smiled, "It was the least I could do."

Both shared a quick laugh between them, then figured it was high time to leave and try to figure out what to do with regards to any possible overnight accommodations.

"Well, I don't know about you, but before we head on off, I got to make a trip to the restroom." Lori said as she began sitting up.

"Actually, since you brought it up, I might as well do the same." Lincoln mentioned, "Here, I'll also take care of our trash and the tray, then once we're both done we'll meet back at Vanzilla."

With those plans settled, Lori went off to take care of her business, with Lincoln soon doing the same once he disposed of the trash and put the tray away like he just said. A couple minutes later, they both returned to Vanzilla and got settled in.

"Well, that takes care of our food situation, but there's still the matter of what to do about where to stay for the night." Lincoln said.

"Yeah, but you know, I think I might have an idea with regards to that." Lori opined, "It came to mind while I was in the restroom after I just realized what town we're in."

"Oh, really? What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"Well...you'll find out." Lori replied cryptically, all the while grinning.

With that mysterious response leaving Lincoln confused, Lori started the engine and resumed in driving.

The drive took them just past the town and back along another series of largely barren roads as the sun had all but set in the distance.

"You know, now I'm kind of beginning to have the same uneasy feeling about being out in the dark far from home." Lincoln said, looking out the window at the rural darkness taking shape.

"Join the club..." Lori added with a nervous laugh, "But don't worry, we're almost at the place I said that I remembered earlier."

Though still figuratively left in the dark, Lincoln trusted Lori with whatever she had in mind.

After a period of time, a change of scenery came about when Lori took a right turn onto a dirt road leading into a forested area. It took a few seconds, but something clicked in Lincoln's mind. Even in the burgeoning darkness, this was starting to look familiar to him.

Then another minute later, it all came together as Lori pulled Vanzilla near a more grassy locale where a lake was prominently featured several feet further to the left.

"Oh, hey, I remember this place now!" Lincoln said once realization kicked in.

Lori smiled, "Yeah, this was the place we stopped by briefly when we were on our way back home from our previous trip to the city. Consider what I'm thinking here as something of a camping stop, except in lieu of tents, sleeping bags and such, we're going to make due with spending the night in Vanzilla. Might not literally make for the most comfy of accommodations, but hey, it's cost effective."

"Well...it's better than nothing, I guess." Lincoln said with a small shrug and a laugh.

Just as Lori shut off the engine, her choice of nighttime arrangements seemed all the more timely as a distant, low rumble of thunder made its presence known.

"Make that _way_ better than nothing." Lincoln reiterated.

"No kidding." Lori agreed.

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Lori ever so briefly stepped out of Vanzilla so she could then quickly go through the passenger side door and climbed back inside, all while a gust of wind was picking up. Meanwhile, Lincoln opted for simply climb around the front passenger seat and join up with his sister at the furthest seat in the back of the van.

As a rain shower plus more thunder rolled on, it gave Lincoln the incentive to get a check on the weather forecast on his phone.

"Well, aren't we just lucky?" He said sarcastically.

"Let me guess, a thunderstorm?" Lori guessed.

"Make that an entire squall line of them." Lincoln answered with just a hint of worry in his voice.

He held up his phone to show Lori the radar imagery in one of the weather apps that featured a menacing line of thunderstorms coming right over them. As if that wasn't enough, both of their phones chimed with a notification informing them that a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for the general area they had chosen for their overnight stay.

"Just what we needed after today, huh?" Lori said with a mild chuckle, trying to find the slightest bit of humor in everything.

"Yeah..." Lincoln replied, trying to force a laugh from himself.

A gushing, torrential downpour arrived rather suddenly mere moments later. It would be joined soon by a bright flash of lightning that acted as a precursor to a booming roar of thunder, strong enough to shake Vanzilla's foundation and caused Lincoln to leap out of his seat and onto Lori's lap. He also latched his arms around her waist and held on tight, which he assumed was something she was not prepared for.

"Heh...sorry about this, Lori. I'm not typically scared of thunderstorms, but given the context of our current situation where we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere at night, with only the two of us as our company, all while the only thing protecting us from the elements is the aging family wagon...it can cause the nerves to get a little wild." Lincoln said, a nervous laugh coming from him in an attempt to conceal his rising anxiety.

Far from taking any issue with this, Lori was more than welcoming in her demeanor. Smiling down at her brother, she put her own arms around him and held him close.

"It's okay, Lincoln. I don't mind at all." She told him comfortingly.

A strong gust of wind came through next, enough for a creaking noise to be made as Vanzilla shifted around ever so slightly. The subtle movement, plus more thunder rolling on, made Lincoln tense up and snuggle up closer to his sister, prompting her to tighten her grip on him even firmer. Admittedly, Lori was pretty unnerved herself with the intensity of the thunderstorm raging on just beyond, but she put on enough of a brave face for the sake of her brother. She also happened to have an idea that could ease them both.

"Hey Lincoln, how about we try forgetting about the storm by just talking, okay?" Lori suggested.

Lincoln looked up and faced his sister, "Talking? About what?"

"Anything, really." Lori responded, running a hand down her brother's back a few times, "It doesn't matter, as long as it can help take your mind off everything...and mine, too, I'll freely admit."

After exhaling, Lincoln took up his sister's offer and tried to think of something worth talking about. The amount of time he used might've mainly been an excuse to take in all the warm and soothing comfort that Lori gave out, but he did come up with something, as random a moment as it may be.

"Well, one thing that did come to mind was that party you once held." Lincoln said following the few minutes of thought.

Lori chuckled, "Oh right, that snooze fest of a 'sophisticated' party where I everyone left, then you invited me upstairs to another one you and our sisters were having once I realized how silly the whole 'sophisticated' part of everything literally was."

"Hey, I'd say it was a hit because you eventually joined in on the fun." Lincoln said smiling, "But the other reason I'm remembering this was due the conversation we had afterwards before bedtime..."

* * *

_As the clock was striking 10:00 PM, Lincoln had entered the final stages of getting ready for bed. But despite using the facilities and putting on his pajamas, he didn't feel like going to sleep just yet. Whether he wasn't tired yet or just wanted to squeeze in one last activity into his schedule, he got out of his room and headed downstairs._

_Whatever his plans were, they came to a halt when Lincoln arrived at the bottom of the stairs and saw Lori sitting on the couch. However, a closer inspection showed that she was actually asleep, with her head being propped up by her hand as her elbow rested on the couch arm._

_Curious as to what she was doing here, Lincoln carefully approached her, took a seat next to her and prodded her arm._

" _Lori?" He inquired to her softly._

_Not much else effort was needed after that as Lori's eyes fluttered open, then she rubbed them and finally looked over in his direction._

" _Lincoln? What are you doing still up? Shouldn't you be in bed by now?" Lori questioned a little drowsily._

" _I was, but thought maybe I could squeeze in a little TV or grab a quick snack or something else." Lincoln replied, "But enough about me, what about you? What were you doing down here still?"_

_Lori let out a little yawn, "I don't really know…one moment I was simply resting my eyes, the next I appear to have literally dozed off."_

_She stretched out her limbs and took a deep breath. Meanwhile, Lincoln kicked back further against the couch himself and put his hands behind his head._

" _Boy, some party we had, didn't we?" He said._

" _That's sounds like that was pretty much the case." Lori agreed, "Though things only really started kicking off after my own dumb little 'sophisticated' party turned out to be a bust."_

" _I'm not sure you should go so far as saying it was a 'bust'…" Lincoln said, trying to look on a brighter side, "You did manage to have a sizable guest list show up for your shindig and they did stick around for a decent amount of time, so there's that."_

" _Yeah, but none of them really were hooked on anything that I had lined up for the occasion. I mean, it had to have been dull enough for one of those guests, Joey, to get seemingly more fulfillment from getting his homework done. Not to mention I kicked out the only people that actually did provide entertainment value. Between Luna, Luan and even you in that disguise of yours, the three of you really knew how to provide a good time compared to my failed, stuffy efforts at sophistication." Lori countered with._

_She sighed softly for a moment and then recounted one...particularly unusual moment._

" _Speaking of which, even though I still find it to be kind of gross, mind if I ask how you pulled off that trick with your underwear?"_

" _Heh...well, I'm not so sure if a master of his trade should reveal such methodology so easily. Sometimes a little mystery is necessary." Lincoln answered, sounding so proud of himself._

_Lori scoffed, "A trade? Is that what you're calling it?"_

" _Hey, you're the one who admitted that it got more of reaction than most anything you had set up. You asked and you got your answer." Lincoln followed up with cockily._

" _All right, I think I've contributed enough to enlarging that ego of yours for tonight." Lori said while she mussed around his hair._

_Lincoln giggled lightly, as did Lori, then she kicked back in a similar manner as he did._

" _But in all honesty, Lori, once you did realize that sophistication isn't always a guaranteed road to party success, you really did get the hang of things and now you know what to do should you want to pull off a such another function." He said, scooting a little closer and patting her shoulder._

_Flashing a grin, Lori reached her arm out and drew her brother over to her, "Thanks, Lincoln. That actually does mean a good deal to me."_

" _No problem. Glad to be a confidence booster in that respect." Lincoln expressed gratifyingly, more so than with his self-satisfaction over his party trickery._

_For a little while afterward, nothing else was said between them, only taking in the little late night moment of bonding being shared in the time that went on. But soon, weariness started getting the better of them._

" _Well, I don't know about you, Lori, but I'm finally ready to shove off for bed." Lincoln said with a little sleepiness._

_Concurring with that sentiment, Lori yawned, "Same here for me. Guess we should literally be on our way. Mind if I walked you up to your room in the meantime?"_

" _I'd like that." Lincoln responded and nodded affirmatively._

_Withdrawing her arm from around him, Lori allowed Lincoln to sit up from the couch first and then she got up and stretched briefly. Next, she followed him up the stairs and into his room, where he crawled underneath the covers of his bed and got comfortable. While he settled in, Lori sat down on the edge of his bed._

" _You know, instead of a snack or TV, looks like all I needed was just to have a quick talk with you to get the whole sleeping thing into motion." Lincoln said, following that with a yawn._

" _Whatever works, I guess." Lori expressed with a soft laugh, "Anyway, good night, Lincoln."_

" _Good night, Lori." Lincoln replied in kind._

_After grazing his hair and a light kiss on the cheek, Lori got up and let Lincoln get to sleep as she exited his room before next going to her room to start her own bedtime preparations._

* * *

"While I did kind of ask you at the time, I never really found out as to what you were doing before you dozed off then." Lincoln said.

"Well, I was largely taking the time in putting away the party props and such. Typical, the host having to do most of the cleanup." Lori explained, chortling at the end, "Anyway, once I finished up with that, it was then that I sat down and relaxed, only to then as you mentioned did I doze off until you came along."

As both shared a little smile, they also noticed that in the time they've talked and reminisced, the conditions outside dramatically improved the storm was departing and losing some of its punch. The winds were dying down, the thunder had become more distant, lightning was pretty much a non factor now and no longer was the rain a torrential downpour, but instead became a lighter, yet still steady sort.

"Lori?" Lincoln said, breaking a brief period of silence that followed the storm's passing.

"What is it?" Lori wondered.

"This shouldn't be weighing on me more than it should, but I want to apologize again for the way I acted back at the restaurant. It was pretty uncalled for on my end." Lincoln answered, sighing and shifting around a little.

Lori squeezed him a little tighter, "Don't worry about it, Lincoln. Truthfully I'm not exactly blameless myself for that. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked what was going on. Whatever was texted between you and Ronnie Anne should've remained between you and her, and I suppose that I didn't need to pry into any private details being shared. Also, I shouldn't have tried implying something that likely wasn't there with regards to your, um…incident from earlier today. That was literally really dumb on my part."

"It's...uh…it's okay...Lori..." Lincoln said, grunting a little as his eyes were starting to droop.

"Hey, you're getting sleepy already? It is still kind of early in the night, being...just a little past 8:00 PM and all." Lori observed after a quick glance of her watch.

"Yeah, but what else can we do to kill time in our current situation?" Lincoln asked, "We could keep talking about whatever else some more, but I feel at some point we'll get bored of that. Plus, maybe this long day has finally caught up with me and its making me want to get a jump start on sleeping if it's no trouble."

Lori simply shrugged, "Well, if that's the case, then go ahead, be my guest."

Smiling at her, Lincoln snuggled up just a little bit closer within the arms of his oldest sister and nestled the side of his head along her chest. Slowly, his eyes closed and he sighed contently. Meanwhile, Lori leaned back further along the seat and she too released a content sigh as well. It took a little while longer, and perhaps thanks to the more soothing pattering of the current rain shower outside, she gently rested her own head on that of Lincoln's and began drifting into her own slumber.

* * *

Several hours later, as the crack of dawn occurred, Lori found herself stirring awake. She blinked a couple of times and let out a small yawn. She looked down to see Lincoln still asleep in her arms, a sight she found super adorable. Speaking of sights, she turned to look out the window and saw the sun just barely beginning to peek over the horizon, casting a pinkish orange hue in the sky and a shimmering reflective effect on the lake, making for an absolutely gorgeous visual worth waking up to. So taken in by this, she gently took out her phone and took a couple pictures of it.

The clicking of her phone's camera shutter did, however, also have the effect of causing Lincoln to wake up. His act of shifting around caught the attention of his sister.

"Oh, hey there, Lincoln." Lori said, "Sorry, did I wake you up just now?"

Lincoln laughed weakly, "Maybe a little, but that's okay."

"Well, since you are awake right now, why don't you take a look outside? You'll literally love it." Lori recommended to him.

Taking a couple of seconds to get himself more awake at first, Lincoln looked out the window like he was advised to. If he wasn't already, the picturesque early morning scene he witnessed got his senses woken up.

"Whoa! Look at that!" He said in wonderment.

"I know, right?" Lori added with similar zeal, "In fact, I have an idea. Bring your phone with you, too."

As Lori was stepping out of Vanzilla, Lincoln followed along with his phone at hand. She positioned herself facing away from the sunset and motioned for Lincoln to come by her side. When he did, she put her arm around him and held her phone out in front of them. Now understanding what she was wanting them to do, Lincoln put his arm around Lori's waist and also held up his phone so they could take a simultaneous selfie with the sunset in the background.

"All right, together in 3...2...1!" Lori shouted.

At the end of that countdown, they both smiled and their respective camera shutters on their phones went off to capture this beautiful moment.

"Well, looks like I found my phone's newest background image for the next while." Lincoln said, sounding very satisfied with what he sees.

"And I'm definitely posting this on my social media accounts!" Lori added exuberantly, "It's literally so perfect!"

With their impromptu selfies taken, Lori and Lincoln returned inside Vanzilla.

"Well, ready to finally head off for home, Lincoln?" Lori said.

"I'd say so, though it is still a little bit dark out. Won't that be kind of a problem based on what you told me last night about driving at or close to dark?" Lincoln curiously asked.

Lori shook her head, "No, no this time around. Here at least it'll get more light out as time goes on, so I'll be good."

With that being said, she turned over Vanzilla's engine and began driving herself and Lincoln off to resume their journey back home. Aside from a quick trip to a convenience store for restroom breaks and grabbing a little something to eat and drink, the drive went along with no other interruptions.

Finally, at long last and after all the trials and tribulations they went through, Vanzilla pulled up onto the driveway of the Loud house, bringing its two missing inhabitants back home as they both let out heavy, but relieved sighs.

"We made it..." Lori said with a little spent laugh.

"Indeed we have." Lincoln added, "A lot has happened, but honestly, there's no one I'd rather have went through everything with than you, Lori."

"Aww...how sweet of you." Lori expressed kindheartedly, leaning over to gently kiss him on his cheek, earning a cute giggle from Lincoln.

Next, they got out and headed into their home where they were immediately welcomed by their awaiting family through a tight group hug. Following being in such an embrace for a while, they allowed Lori and Lincoln to head upstairs to recoup for a moment in their rooms.

Within her room, Lori sat down on her bed and took a minute to post her sunrise selfie with Lincoln to her various social media accounts, complete with the following caption.

" _Literally such a precious sight...and a wonderful sunrise, too!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we're done with the first five chapters! Next we'll alter the format for the last three and I'll see you then!


	6. In the Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my glorious readers! Welcome to the second and in a sense bonus phase of this collection.
> 
> So I sort of touched on this in the first chapter and now I'll elaborate further. These last three chapters that you'll be seeing are taking place within the span of a single day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and of course the last one taking place at night. The day will consist of Lincoln just generally hanging around the house and doing various things with his family, while the whole flashback process remains the same, except for one new wrinkle.
> 
> So those first five chapters as you know each centered between Lincoln and one of his older sisters, both in regards to the flashbacks and the story between them. This time around, every flashback features at least two or more of the sisters. Now, you'll probably be quick to point out that some of the previous flashbacks have included more than one sister, but I'm talking in this case in prominent roles as opposed to secondary cases.
> 
> Okay, so the flashbacks for this one are based on "Cereal Offender", "Hand Me Downer" and "Picture Perfect." Now, just like with the flashback for "A Fridge Too Far" in chapter two, I'm doing as much an alteration of the events of "Cereal Offender" as doing something in its aftermath, so there you go.
> 
> And with that, enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

The time was seconds away from approaching 7:00 AM on a simple Saturday morning. Once that time struck, a soft beeping from an alarm clock prompted the awakening of Lincoln Loud. He rose up from his bed and sauntered somewhat sleepily to shut off the alarm, then he took a moment to stretch and yawn.

Saturdays are sometimes a busy affair for Lincoln and most everyone else within the walls of the Loud house, but this one was going to be an easier, more relaxing day. Beyond the obvious benefit of no school, he didn't have any plans involving friends or himself going anywhere outside the abode. Instead, it was going to be a basic day of staying home and hanging around with his family, something he had no objections to and greatly welcomed.

After spending another minute to get more fully awake, Lincoln opened his bedroom door and walked down the hall where he was greeted by an oftentimes familiar scene, that being a modest line consisting of some of his sisters waiting to use the bathroom.

"Good morning, you guys." Lincoln greeted.

In response, he got a smattering of mixed reciprocal morning well wishes, some cheery and others a little more groggy. As the line seemed particularly slow right now, even if it wasn't a long as it tended to be, Lincoln didn't feel like waiting for the time being.

"Eh, you know what, I don't actually have to go that badly nor am I in a real rush to grab a shower, so maybe I'll get the morning going with some breakfast first."

With his intentions declared, Lincoln made a path down the stairs and rounded over to the kitchen. For today, a simple spot of cereal would likely suffice for now. He grabbed a bowl and spoon, then retrieved some milk and finally got a box of the stuff from cupboard, one he was quite familiar with.

"Ah, Zombie Bran, we meet again." Lincoln said in satisfaction, "We have quite the history together, don't we? My sisters almost cost us our first meeting together thanks to some tomfoolery on their part, remember? Luckily, they soon saw the error of their ways and a select few really went out of their way to make amends..."

* * *

_A tensely quiet atmosphere dominated Vanzilla while Rita Loud drove her kids home from the grocery store, albeit without any products at all to show for. They had gotten themselves kicked out of said establishment as a result of some very wild antics and to say their mother wasn't pleased at all was a huge understatement._

_In this instance, Rita harbored the most disappointment towards Lincoln. He offered to do the shopping for her in exchange for him getting a box of the newest variety of cereal, Zombie Bran. His sisters had also came along to help out, but as soon as they arrived, they instead inexplicably dispersed and goofed off, making Lincoln believe their offer to assist in the shopping was a farce. Regardless, he did manage to get the shopping done, including getting the cereal, but in the end it was for nothing. As a result of the aforementioned chaos plus a scuffle over the cereal, the kids were kicked out and left o_ _ne_ _mightily_ _displeased mother of theirs in their wake._

" _Mom, listen, I..." Lincoln began saying._

" _Lincoln, what did I already say? For the final time, I don't want to hear it. You couldn't handle such a responsibility and don't expect me to delegate something like that to you again for a long time to come." Rita retorted tersely._

_Sighing in defeat, Lincoln slumped his shoulders and lowered his head. His mom wasn't entirely inaccurate in his failure to handle things today, both in getting the shopping done and keeping his sisters in line._

_Speaking of which, as they witnessed the exchange between their mom and brother, the sisters were filled with their own sense of guilt. But in particular, it was the three in the first row of passenger seats in the back, Lori, Leni and Luna, who felt more distraught_ _than the rest. Given them being the three oldest siblings, they should've had their own heightened sense of responsibility_ _in getting things done and keep the rest of their siblings in check. Instead, they were as guilty as anyone for the preceding madness that got everyone kicked out. Now, they felt the need to right the wrongs of the day._

" _Wait, Mom, please don't put all the blame on Lincoln. If anything, it's really our fault how everything turned out. We promised to help_ _him_ _out with the shopping and we literally did_ _n't_ _do any of it at all." Lori said._

" _We had no idea that he cut a deal with you behind our backs so he could nab his cereal." Luna added, "Sure, we didn't like learning about that, but compared to us trashing the joint and just acting all_ _outta wack_ _? I don't think i_ _t_ _justified any of that."_

" _He kept telling us to behave ourselves and we never listened!" Leni_ _brought up, punctuated with a saddened whimper._

" _So as much you think he was responsible for all that happened, let it be known that more of the blame should be in our direction and we're really sorry, Mom." Lori wrapped up with._

_For a second, Rita looked up to the rear view to see the sorrow in the faces of her three eldest daughters. She shook her head and sighed roughly._

" _Girls, I'm certainly not suggesting you're innocent here, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that your brother here told me he could handle the shopping and completely failed in that_ _respect." She said._

" _Jeez, do you have to put it so harshly, Mom? Like Lori said, we're the ones who really...screwed up back there." Luna reemphasized, narrowly avoiding using a much more unpleasant word._

_Rita groaned, "Listen, I've said my final word on this. Lincoln couldn't get the job done and you girls_ _proved you can't exactly be trusted with this kind of thing as well. You will all have to do a lot in order to make_ _me_ _rethink that position, got it? End of discussion."_

_W_ _ith such a judgment cast down, the remainder of the car ride home again was covered in a thick blanket of tense, regret-filled silence._ _The only sound cutting through such a minute later was a heartrending_ _utterance from Lincoln that came off like a sigh transitioning into a whimper of complete defeat. For her part in reaction to that, Lori reached out and clamped down on his shoulder. He didn't bother in checking who exactly was doing that to him, but he did put his hand over the one affectionately squeezing on his shoulder._

_Moments later, as Vanzilla pulled up onto the driveway, Lori had an idea. She leaned over and whispered something into Luna's ear, who in turn then did the same for Leni._ _While everyone else began stepping out of the van, they stayed behind._

" _Uh, Mom, I know you're not in the best of moods right now, but do you mind if I borrowed the car for a bit?" Lori requested a little bit tentatively, "I need to run an errand and require Leni and Luna's help with it."_

_Rita looked back over to the three girl remaining inside. She likely had an idea as to what was this errand was in question, though she didn't want to openly ask about it. Perhaps in a small amount of guilt on her end for the harsh stance she'd taken particularly against Lincoln, she sighed and relented to the request._

" _Fine, just don't take too long." Rita stated somewhat sternly._

_She handed the keys to Lori before stepping out of the driver's seat. While their mother returned inside the house, the rest of the siblings were still outside minus Lincoln, who likely_ _went back inside already._

_Then, as Lori got out of Vanzilla to then get to the driver's seat, she was getting overlapping questions about why she plus Leni and Luna weren't coming along and what they were doing._

" _Don't worry about us, guys, we'll be right back. In the meantime, how about you see if Lincoln is in the need of any company?" Lori explained to them, grinning in the end._

_The rest of the sisters nodded in the affirmative at their eldest sibling's directive, some more sadly than others, as Lori climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine and drove off._

_As their three oldest sisters were off in their errand, the rest tried talking to Lincoln and extending their apologies for what happened. Though appreciative of their efforts, he kindly told them that he need some time alone, so they respected his request reluctantly._

_Eventually,_ _much_ _later on in that night, Lincoln was in the living room_ _taking in a final hour of TV watching before bedtime. It was also during this time that Lori, Leni and Luna entered the room._

" _Um...hey, Lincoln." Leni said kind of nervously. "What's going on?"_

" _Just...watching TV. Nothing more, nothing less." Lincoln responded listlessly._

" _Mind if we joined you for a bit, bro?" Luna asked._

_Lincoln shrugged, "I...guess not."_

_With that, the three of them sat down along with their only little brother, with Lori sitting next to Lincoln from his right side, Luna to h_ _is_ _left and Leni to Luna's own left._

" _Listen, we're guessing you've already heard something similar from everyone else_ _earlier_ _and it's about time we said the same thing..." Lori_ _started out with._

_She shifted herself in her seating to completely face her brother._

" _Lincoln, we are so sorry for everything that happened at the grocery store. There's literally nothing at all that should excuse our behavior back there."_

_Lincoln sighed, "It's all right, I suppose. At the same time, though, I can't understand what possessed you guys to_ _act in such a manner in a public place like that."_

" _Honestly, we have no clue on our end, dude, but again, no way can we justify wreckin' up the place or not doing any of the shopping." Luna said._

" _We really should've known better..." Leni added simply._

" _Yeah, that's quite the understatement..." Lori agreed with a very small,_ _regretful laugh._

_Lincoln twiddled his thumbs before sighing again, "Well...I don't know if I was that much better. The only reason I asked Mom to do the shopping for her was out of the selfish desire to get that cereal of mine. But she was right in that I was a complete failure today..."_

_He moved back further into the couch and brought his knees up to his chest, hugging them and shaking his head_ _as he lowered it._

" _Aw, Linky..." Leni expressed w_ _oefully_ _, "_ _Don't be so sad."_

" _Yeah, you're being way too hard on yourself." Lori added, rubbing his shoulder softly, "For one, Mom did not call you specifically a failure, and believe us, we'd never take anything close to something like that being said by anyone laying down, parental or otherwise."_

_Hearing that portion did make Lincoln a little bit better. But also sometimes after instances of today, he wondered what he'd ever done to deserve such caring sisters, as he was about to express._

" _I'm not sure how I earned such understanding from you guys, since I was dumb enough to let something as small as a cereal box come between us." He said before groaning uneasily._

" _I'll tell you why."_

_Those words from Luna, plus the act of her taking one of his hands within her own, made Lincoln lift his head up to face her._

" _Because we're your family, little bro. We all stick together no matter what and are always willing to fess up to and fix any mistakes we've made." She said, bringing her other hand up to place it along his cheek, "Speaking of mistakes, I feel personally at fault for_ _the gnarly business at the very end of everything. Had I not snatched away the cereal from you, none of us would've gotten into that scrap which finally got us kicked out of the store. You really could have gotten everything done and I all but completely took that away for you."_

_S_ _he exhaled, shook her head and then she brought her brother over into a hug._

" _I'm so sorry, Lincoln…" Luna expressed in a slightly wavering voice._

_After being within the hug for a few seconds, Lincoln returned the favor himself, putting his own arms around Luna and let that follow up act as his way of saying she's forgiven. Soon after, Lori and Leni joined in on the hug from their ends._

" _I think after the work you put in today, Lincoln, you really deserve something for all your troubles." Lori said upon the hug ending, "Luna, do you mind?"_

_With a smile and a nod, the third eldest of the sisters sat up and headed upstairs._

" _What's going on?" Lincoln asked._

" _Oh, you're totes gonna love it!" Leni said happily, "We got you the..."_

_Lori reached around her brother and_ _gripped her sister's shoulder, "Uh, Leni, I know you're excited, but best not spoil the surprise in front of him_ _just literally seconds before he gets it._ _."_

_Leni nervously laughed, "Oh, right..."_

_Following a few more seconds, Luna returned with something in her hands. She placed the item right on the coffee table from where Lincoln was sitting. It was a rectangular box, one that was instantly recognizable._

" _Wait...you got me my Zombie Bran?!" He stated in complete surprise._

" _But of course we did! How else were we going to make it up to you?" Lori said._

_Lincoln took the cereal box in his hands, then he looked up to Luna, "What was it doing upstairs? In your room, I'm guessing?"_

_Luna chuckled, "We had to stow it away somewhere, dude! We could've put it away in one of the kitchen cupboards were you might have stumbled upon it, which could've made for a nice surprise, but I kinda liked they way we did it just now instead."_

_Lincoln was absolutely stunned. To think that his sisters went out of their way to get just this one little thing he'd worked his backside off for initially touched him more than he'd expect. His brief doubts about what he's ever done to earn their love and care disappeared in an instant._

" _Wow, just…thank you so much. You guys are the best." Lincoln said._

" _It's no trouble, Lincoln." Lori said in return, "And let me tell you this right now. Whenever Mom thinks we can do something like that again, we promise you that we'll actually help out with the shopping for real as opposed to literally goofing off."_

_Smiling widely, Lincoln approached his oldest sister and embraced her, which caused Leni and Luna to also join in as well._

* * *

As he was crunching up that last bite of cereal, Lincoln let out a brief laugh. Though it really was unbelievable how something silly like that got between him and his sisters, it also warmed his heart how they can make it up to him even for something so minor.

Once he was finished, he put his dishes in the sink and made a return trip upstairs. By now, the line was now more, though he could sense somebody was occupying the bathroom at the moment. He waited until whomever it was finished up, revealing ultimately to be Lynn upon her coming out.

"All yours, Lincoln." She said, gesturing him to head on in.

"Thanks, Lynn." Lincoln said as he walked past her.

"Actually, just before you head in and take care of business, I was thinking maybe later on we could do a couple of sports activities together. What say you?" Lynn suggested.

"Uh...sure, no problem. It's going to be a nice day out, so yeah, why not?" Lincoln replied.

Giving him a thumbs up, Lynn went along with her morning while Lincoln proceeded with his routine in the bathroom. A use of the toilet and a shower later some ten minutes later, he went to his room and got dressed. Then, after getting that done, Lincoln reemerged and noticed the ladder leading up the attic was down. His curiosity rising, he chose to investigate.

Upon arriving, Lincoln didn't see much of anything and opted to leave had he not heard a sudden voice.

"Hey, Lincoln."

Yelping for a second, Lincoln looked around until he saw Lucy over at the darkest corner of the attic. She was sitting down with her bust of Edwin on one side, her pet bat Fangs hanging on the rafters just right above her and a séance board set up.

"Oh, hey, Lucy. What's going on?" Lincoln asked.

"Oh, just conducting some morning machinations with the spirits. You know, the usual." Lucy responded casually.

"Ah, well...don't mind me, then." Lincoln said awkwardly.

Though he may felt like leaving, Lincoln felt oddly compelled to explore the attic a little more in the meantime as his spooky sister conducted her own spiritual business. Going to the opposite end from where Lucy was, he panned around until a large box over on the left which caught his attention.

Going over to it, he realized it was a box of hand-me-downs, and right to the side of it were an odd little collection of items cobbled together. However, this collection he recalled was something quite special and it all came about after he learned a lesson about the true meaning of hand-me-downs…

* * *

_In his room, Lincoln had been hard at work over something. He felt encouraged to do whatever it was after the day's events the preceded this moment and hoped it would act as a goodwill gesture and an apology for those very events._

_Sighing with some satisfaction, Lincoln came out of his room and went downstairs, where halfway though he saw his five older sisters sitting together in the living room doing their various activities._

" _Ah, just the five girls I was looking for." He said._

_When they heard him address them, the sisters simply looked at him with pure disinterest. Giving what had happened earlier, it's not like he could entirely blame them._

" _Look, I think I owe you guys a couple of apologies, so if you'll allow me..."_

_Lincoln arrived at the bottom of the stairs and approached his sisters._

" _First to you, Lynn, in that I'm sorry again for borrowing your bike without your permission." He said regretfully._

" _Uh, I think the word you were looking for is 'stealing', Lincoln." Lynn issued in correction, "But really, I already told you it's all good. Besides, that other bike Lori intended in giving to you that's now in my possession is satisfying my needs."_

" _Well, at least someone is getting use out of it..." Lori said with just a tinge of annoyance._

_Lincoln's face grimaced somewhat. He obviously knew those words were indirectly referencing him over his hesitation in accepting Lori's old bike at the start of the day._

" _Well, since we're on the subject, I guess I now owe you an apology, too, Lori. I'm sorry that I wasn't really too grateful when you gave me that bike of yours in the beginning and I'll freely admit, hands up in the air, that the girlishness of it all made it hard for me to accept it." He said, rubbing his arm, "But hey, like you acknowledged and as Lynn said, at least she's using it, which has to act as some sort of consolation, right?"_

_Lori glanced over at her brother, then she simply sighed and shrugged, "Sure, whatever, if that's how you literally want to look at things."_

_Lincoln nervously laughed, then allowed a couple seconds of silence to take hold before going on._

" _But broadly speaking, I feel like apologizing to you all as a group." He resumed, "I'm sorry that I didn't quite understand the concept of hand-me-downs in the first place. Here I thought it was about getting some cool things from my older sisters, when in reality it isn't about what I_ _was_ _getting, but who was giving_ _me_ _them. I'll admit that maybe I didn't appreciate t_ _hat actual hand-me-downs_ _you gave me_ _as much as you anticipated_ _, but at the very least_ _I should've been appreciative in those efforts_ _of yours_ _, and once again, I'm sorry."_

_After hearing their brother's apology, the sisters looked at one another like they were mentally conferring among themselves over everything. Seconds later, they returned their gaze to Lincoln._

" _I suppose we can forgive you, Lincoln." Luan said on behalf of everyone, "We should at least be proud of the fact you have better understanding of this whole process."_

" _Oh, believe me, I do." Lincoln stated_ _more_ _upbeat, "_ _And speaking of which, if you guys don't mind sparing a little bit more time of yours for me, there's something I like to show you all if you'll follow me to my room."_

_Perhaps in due part to his apologies and forgiving him, the sisters were willing to indulge in Lincoln's request and indeed allowed him in leading them to his room._

_When everyone stepped inside Lincoln's room, the lone boy of the family presented to his sisters a most unique of surprises._

_Sitting on the bed was Colonel Crackers, Luan's original ventriloquist dummy who she handed down to Lincoln, but that was far from the only item present. The dummy also was wearing the shirt with the initials "LL" that was Leni's hand-me-down and right at his waistline was another one, Lynn's jockstrap. Finally, just right at his feet was the busted up, broken guitar that once belonged to Luna._

" _So, I heavily doubt I'll personally ever get much use of out of any of the things you handed down to me, but I wanted to show that I can make us of them somehow and decided to incorporate all together like you're seeing them. Consider this another apology in a sense, too." Lincoln said, nervously grinning._

_Like just before, the sisters shared another look with each other as they figured out what to make of this. Admittedly at first, hearing their brother straight up say he might not get_ _personal_ _use of their hand-me-downs_ _was a little irksome. Still, just like how he said that he should appreciate his sisters' efforts for the time honored tradition of older siblings handing down mostly gently used items to t_ _h_ _e younger set, they felt obligated to do the same for his endeavor here._

" _Well, it's creative, we'll give you that much." Luan said, then a humorous smile took shape, "You could even call it a cracking effort! Get it?"_

" _If you ask me, it's kind of a cute setup." Leni added._

" _Yeah, better this than them collecting dust under your bed, I guess" Lynn expressed with a playful jab to Lincoln's shoulder._

" _And on a related note, since we found out about this just recently, we also like to say how proud of you we are for handing down Lynn's bike to Lana. Looks like you did learn a little something from all of this." Lori said, smiling approvingly._

_Hearing the approval of his sisters for his efforts, Lincoln felt relieved. However, he did pick up on the fact that Luna didn't say anything yet herself. He also noticed that she had something of a distant look on her face._

" _Luna? Hey, Luna!" He said to her._

" _Huh, what? Oh, sorry about that. Kinda spaced out there for a sec." Luna said after snapping herself out of her little trance, "But anyway, nice job, bro."_

_She gave Lincoln what looked a like a forced smile onto top of a thumbs up, then she rather unexpectedly left the room._

" _What was that?" Leni wondered._

" _Eh, could be something or nothing at all." Lynn dismissed somewhat casually, "Anyway, we should be on our way, too."_

_Following their athletic sister's lead, Lori, Leni and Luan also took their leave and allowed Lincoln to have some solitude in his room._

_However, just only a couple of minutes later, he heard the door being knocked on._

" _Huh? Who is it?" Lincoln inquired curiously._

" _It's me again, dude. Mind if I come back in for a jiff?"_

_He was surprised to hear that it was Luna coming back soon._

" _Um...not at all." He responded rather confused._

_The door opened up and the rocker girl reentered her brother's room bearing a more distressed expression._

" _What's going on, Luna? Is there something else you wanted to talk to me about? And regardless of that, what was the deal with you leaving so suddenly moments earlier?" Lincoln asked._

_Luna sighed heavily, "Well, you could say I wanted to find an excuse to chat with you a little more without everyone else around."_

_Lincoln tilted his head to the side curiously, "About what?"_

" _It's about...well, that." Luna said, pointing to the broken guitar over on the bed._

_She leaned against the door and folded her arms before continuing._

" _When you got to talkin' about the hand-me-downs that we gave you, I have to confess that I started feeling kinda bad about my own contribution to everything. Then once you showed off this neat little setup you got here, it made me feel worse seeing how mangled up that old guitar looked compared to how in tact everything else was."_

_With another sigh, Luna motioned for Lincoln to join alongside her on his bed away from the hand-me-downs and then she put an arm around him._

" _Look, the truth is that I intentionally broke that guitar before giving it to you assuming you'd make something out of it. Sure, you know how to restring my primary axe, but I should've taken from that you could repair an entire one by yourself. Also, it makes me such a total hypocrite because I take care of and value all my instruments and yet here I was all like, 'here ya go, bro, take this damaged axe of mine and make do with it', right?"_

_She lightly squeezed Lincoln with her arm, then she pulled back and put both her hands on his shoulders._

" _So, I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm sorry for all of that, Lincoln. In a sense, I wouldn't have blamed you one little bit if you'd chucked that thing in the trash heap, but the fact you kept it around and even made it a part of your setup over there...that really does mean a lot and shows what a cool little bro you truly are." Luna concluded appreciatively._

_After listing to everything, Lincoln put his hands around his sister's wrists and smiled._

" _Luna, I wasn't ever going to throw that guitar away. Yeah, it being in the smashed state it was in made it a forgone conclusion that I'd never really use it, but never was I going to do away with it. It had to have meant something very dearly to you at one point and I'd never have the heart to just throw something like that away, no matter the condition and especially if it belonged to any of my sisters." He said wholeheartedly._

_Luna grinned widely, "Oh, come here, little dude."_

_She reached her arms out and hugged him tightly, something Lincoln was all too willing to do right back for her._

" _Thank you, bro, and I'll promise you the next time I hand something down to you, it'll be in as rockin' condition as that sweet little heart of yours." She said ever so profoundly._

* * *

"Lincoln? Lincoln!"

At first he didn't hear his name being called out, but one touch of his shoulder caused Lincoln to yelp and have his attention refocused. He looked his shoulder to see Lucy standing behind him.

"Oh, it's only you, Lucy…" He said, nervously laughing afterward.

"Was there something wrong, Lincoln?" Lucy asked, "You looked like you were lost in thought."

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about, Lucy. I was just thinking back to the hand-me-downs our older sisters gave me a while back and how I learned to have a greater understanding about how that kind of thing works." Lincoln explained to his younger sister, "Anyway, I should really on my way now."

He stood up, brushed himself off and walked right past Lucy. His hasty leave did make her wonder for a second, but she shrugged it off and returned to her séance.

Meanwhile, Lincoln returned over to his room for a moment. Looking at and engaging in some reminiscing made him remember something else. He knelt down next to his bed and looked underneath it. Besides the trunk full of all sorts of miscellaneous things inside, there's was something else pretty special he kept under there in lieu of a more proper storage place for it.

The item in question was a small acoustic guitar that originally belonged to Luna. After their talk where she expressed her regret for that broken guitar from before, she later followed up on her promise to give him something that was in more properly working condition.

With a smile, Lincoln put the guitar down for a second on his bed and then opened up one of the top drawers of his dresser to retrieve a guitar pick that Luna also gave him in conjunction with the instrument. Next, with that pick at hand, he sat down on his bed, brought the guitar onto his lap and figured that a good idea to kill some time would be to get a little refinement in technique.

Although he still held firm in his original statement from talking to his older sisters from before about how he may not get a whole lot of use from their hand-me-downs, which again lead him to combine them into one to make something out of them, he did feel a little more obliged for Luna's sake in trying to give this guitar a whirl here and there for her efforts in apologizing for the broken guitar and the kindhearted gesture for giving it to him in the first place. He obviously had no plans in becoming a professional or even an amateur musician if the numerous sour and messed up notes he hit were any indicator, but still, playing on occasion and getting better each time just as a casual hobby never hurts.

After getting some time in with the guitar, Lincoln put it away and left his room again. For the rest of his morning, he did a handful of other activities such as watching TV, helping Lola out with a couple new hairstyles of hers and being sort of reluctant assistant for Lisa during an experiment of hers, but if the ever so slightly burnt eyebrows on his end meant anything, he may reconsider doing such for his younger sister of the high intellectual quotient variety for a little while to come.

Following some recuperation in the living room, Lincoln started having this nagging feeling that there was something else he planned on doing. He was about to get a quick reminder as he was standing up from the couch, though.

"Lincoln, heads up!"

He turned just in time to see Lynn on the stairs throwing her football over to him. He leaped up and caught it narrowly just as it was hurtling toward the mantle of the fireplace.

"Whew..." Lincoln said in relief, then returned his attention to the ball's thrower, "Lynn, you might want to be a lot more careful! You might've nearly broken something!"

Lynn shrugged dismissively, "Eh, maybe. But hey, you caught and there's no damage done, so no harm, no foul, right?. It's not like, I dunno, that something such as our family portrait up over there would suffer as a result. Now anyway, come on, you said earlier you'd join me outside for some sporting activities. I also got Lana to come along, too, so hustle up!"

She dashed over to her brother and snagged the football from him, then charged onward out to the backyard. But before he could tag along, Lincoln paused for a second and looked up that very family portrait that Lynn just now mentioned.

"Heh...look at all us." He remarked to himself, "Absolute perfection, unlike my last two attempts at picture taking..."

* * *

_The beginning of this day had started out quiet beautifully. It was the day of Rita and Lynn Sr.'s anniversary, and like every one of them, their kids had showered them with gifts, but one of them stood out more than the rest._

_In that case, the one given to them by their one and only son, Lincoln, was that of a group photo of himself and their sisters. They were so overjoyed by the gift to the point of calling the best one they've ever gotten for any of their anniversaries. It wasn't easy for Lincoln to get it done along the way. The first photo he took was one he didn't think would work because all his sisters were caught up doing there own thing. As he put it at the time, that photo made them look like a picture of insanity, so he elected to take a second one, although his sisters weren't as enthusiastic this time around. That was perhaps in due part because of the numerous changes Lincoln made them go through, including swapping Leni and Lisa's glasses with each other's, putting a wig on Luna, placing marshmallows in the gaps of Lana and Lola's mouths where front teeth should be and even making Lily have to put on a pacifier that made her look like she had on a toothy grin. Add to the fact that he also made them wear matching sweaters to make things even more symmetrical and Lincoln's sisters all suspected he was doing all of this because he didn't like the way they normally are, so they spitefully flashed "perfect" smiles for the picture._

_Later on, when Lincoln got the picture framed, he was initially very pleased with the result. But after seeing how his sisters normally acted and contrasted that with the "perfect" way he forced them into in the photo, he realized that he made a huge mistake. So by the time he gave his parents his gift for their anniversary, he chose to give them the original picture instead, which his sisters were miffed at first, thinking he had used the "wrong" one. But Lincoln then explained he wanted to gift their parents with that one because it showcased who his sisters really were as opposed to the tacked-on, idealized and "perfect" vestiges on the second picture. Touched by this gesture, the sisters all then showed their appreciation for their brother with a group hug._

_And then Lincoln just had to open his big mouth soon thereafter._

_Not even five seconds into the hug, Lincoln would proceed to pull out a box and say that since his gift was so great, his parents may as well throw away all of his sisters' gifts since they'd look unsatisfactory by comparison. Unsurprisingly, they were displeased with such a proclamation. At that time, Lincoln justified the action in his mind as a way of sticking it to his sisters for how they revealed that all his previous anniversary gifts, all of which were crooked looking coffee mugs, had been thrown away and put into a box in the attic. He also likely did it as a special "screw you" to Lori, who apparently felt the need to keep reminding Lincoln about the supposed many other times he messed up their parents' anniversaries in years past aside from the coffee mugs._

_Right now, however, Lincoln felt completely guilt ridden over his actions. He was currently laying down on the couch look at the picture hanging over the fireplace mantle for anyone and everyone to see. But he figured no one should be seeing it ever again at this rate, as he felt that it's forever tainted due to his stupidly choice words for earlier on._

_Knowing what he felt like he must do, Lincoln pushed one of the living room chairs on over to the fireplace and scaled up it so he could then take the picture down. Right as he was doing that he heard a voice addressing him from behind._

" _Uh, what are you doing, Lincoln?"_

_Knowing that inquiry came from Luan, he turned around and saw all his sisters having gathered in the living room. Some of them looked genuinely confused, Luan included, while others looked more miffed._

" _Well, if must know, I'm taking this picture down because I no longer want it up here." Lincoln responded with a sigh._

_Thanks to that admission, the sisters who were initially confused had now switched over to irritation like the rest._

" _What?! You can't be serious, dude! What gives?" Luna asked testily._

" _Wait a moment...you literally better not be thinking about replacing it with that ridiculous 'perfect' picture from before!" Lori said, scrunching up her face in fury._

" _No I'm not replacing it with anything, because I dislike this picture about as much that so called 'perfect' one, too!" Lincoln retorted._

" _For real? This one's bad, too? You're impossible to please!" Lynn angrily expressed._

_Lincoln growled as he grew increasingly frustrated, "No, that's not what I mean, Lynn! I'm taking this one down because I can't look at it without being reminded of those stupid things I said after giving it to Mom and Dad. There, I admit it, it was stupid of me! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"_

_He flailed his arms up and down with each instance of that word, and he did it with such intensity that without realizing it at first, he lost his grip on the picture as it went flying in the air. Looking on in horror, Lincoln leaped forward from the chair and tried a desperate attempt to catch it, but he landed with a thud on the floor and the picture landed face down on the coffee table, the glass shattering and scattering upon impact as well as the frame being cracked into tw_ _o, resulting in a gasp from everyone._

_After the shock_ _wore off, the sisters' reaction was to pull the younger ones away from any scattered broken glass on the floor and the table. Meanwhile, Lincoln groggily stood up and bore witness to the damage his recklessness resulted in._

" _Oh no...oh no, no, no..." He muttered as he backed away and sat down on the chair he stood on moments earlier, "Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad at me, as if they weren't upset already for what I said before. I didn't like that picture anymore, but I didn't want to be broken..."_

_He scrunched himself up into a ball, released a shuddered sigh and buried his face into his knees._

" _Who am I kidding? You were all right this whole time, especially you, Lori. I do nothing but screw up and crush Mom and Dad's souls on their anniversaries like you kept telling me again and again and again! First those coffee mugs, then_ _the effort to make that awful 'perfect' picture, then those stupid things I said to you guys and now this. I'm just nothing more than one big fat disappointment on this day!"_

_Next, he hugged his legs tightly and began sniffling a few times. In the whirlwind events that transpired these last few seconds, the sisters slowly began to have a change of heart. Though those words Lincoln said after he gave their parents the picture did understandably stick in their craws, seeing him reach the beginning stages of a complete breakdown was softening their initial stances of choler._

" _I take back what I said just now about not liking that picture. I'll get a new frame for it and I'll simply live with the awful things I said in affiliation with it as long as it makes you guys plus Mom and Dad happy..."_

_While Lincoln_ _sat there in deep regret over everything, he felt a hand being put on his shoulder._

" _Lincoln?"_

_He knew that it was Lori speaking to him, but he was too ashamed to look at her._

" _Lincoln, look at me, please." She said softly._

_After a moment of hesitation, he gently looked up to see his oldest sister_ _kneeling down and_ _expressing sorrow on her face._

" _Listen...no one here going to pretend that your attempts to make the perfect picture or what you said about having our anniversary gifts being thrown away d_ _idn't make us feel very annoyed_ _..." Lori began, taking a moment to sigh before continuing, "However,_ _with that said and upon reflection...maybe we shouldn't have reminded you of those past anniversary gifts of yours and I especially didn't need to put it so harshly."_

_Lincoln released another shuddered breath of air, "But it's not like you were wrong..."_

" _Well, right or wrong, I don't think it was the best for me or anyone to put down so casually your past efforts. You were only trying to do your best for Mom and Dad to make the right gift for them and we should try to recognize that better in the future." Lori said._

_As this was going on, Lynn had gone over to the_ _broken picture frame and flipped it over._

" _What are you doing, Lynn?" Leni asked her._

" _Just seeing if we can preserve the picture itself at the very least." Lynn explained, "I think we can just carefully pull it out and..."_

_What she may have not realized at the moment is that there was some glass actually still in tact within the frame and as Lynn tried to get the actual picture out, she pulled it at an awkward angle and ended up accidentally tearing it in half._

" _LYNN!" The sisters shouted in horror._

_T_ _he reaction from everyone caused Lincoln to see the now torn up picture for himself, and if he wasn't already saddened enough,_ _this did him in only further as he now started to tear up. Right away, Lynn went over to his side._

" _Lincoln...I...I...I'm so sorry!" She stuttered._

_S_ _he sat down next to her brother and tried pulling him into a hug. He struggled at first, believing he didn't deserve any sympathy for all his transgressions, but he relented soon after._

" _What am I gonna do now…?" Lincoln wondered as he wept._

" _Maybe you mean 'what are we going to do?'" Lori corrected._

_Lincoln looked back again at his oldest sister, "What do mean by that?"_

" _I mean what if we helped out by taking another picture together, getting it framed and giving it to Mom and Dad_ _as another gift_ _?" Lori suggested._

_Everyone else sounded off their approval of such an idea, though Lincoln was a little unsure._

" _You mean it? You'll actually want to do that, even after everything I've done?" He asked._

" _If anything, we should do that both to help you out and as way to make up for everything on our end, too." Lori said._

" _But what about how or when Mom and Dad will find out what happened to this picture? I know they're gonna hate hearing about this..." Lincoln said worriedly._

" _Do not worry about that, little bro." Lynn told him assuredly, patting his back, "We'll be right by your side to explain everything and to tell them about our plan to take a new picture for them, too."_

_After getting such reassurances, Lincoln took a deep breath and finally allowed a smile to come across his face._

" _Wow...this means a lot to me, you guys. Thank you so much, and I'll promise you that I won't force you into some kind of idealistic vision of mine again. Instead, I'll let you be just the way_ _you are, which is the perfect, real and loving sisters I'll always treasure."_

_Touched by his words, the sisters gathered around Lincoln and formed one of their group hugs. He may find it a little difficult to understand how they are willing to make amends with him so easily whenever he does something really stupid like he's done recently, but the fact they will do so and also admit to wrongdoing on their side as well shows just how tight their bonds really were and how nothing really can break them._

* * *

Sighing happily, Lincoln smiled widely. Compared to the previous two ones, this picture really was the best one. It mostly no frills, just he and his sisters all together smiling, but the simplicity of it spoke volumes greater than any unrealistic ideas of "perfection" could ever dream of.

"Hey, Lincoln! Are you coming or what?!" Lynn shouted.

"Oh, right! Coming!" He responded.

He took a quick second to glace at the picture once more before he finally went to the backyard to join Lynn and the recently included Lana in some hearty, fun-filled sports activities to close out his morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one completed! The next one is coming in a couple of days and I'll see you at that point!


	7. Afternoon Aftermaths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, how are you? Well, we're getting closer to the homestretch with this one. Bit longer than the "couple of days" I claimed this would be done in the previous chapter. Then again, 8-10 days had kind of become the average for how long these past few ones have taken to be uploaded. But hey, better to take my time in making sure a fine finished product is achieved without adhering to vague and arbitrarily stated time frames.
> 
> Today, the flashbacks are based on "Out on a Limo", "Dance, Dance, Resolution" and "Friendzy". Once again, another one of these, "Out on a Limo" in this case, will alter the events of what happened in that one.
> 
> That being said, read on, my...readers!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

A decently eventful morning came to its conclusion for Lincoln. He just a few minutes ago wrapped up a rigorous series of activities of the sporting variety with both Lynn and Lana. It was enough to warrant a nice, long period of respite within his room that it spawned into a nap lasting an hour and a half.

Having finishing up such rest, Lincoln got up and left his room. Right as he was got out, he came across Lisa coming out of her room, too.

"Ah, greetings, brother. What fortuitous timing in that I was hoping to seek a request from you." She said.

"Oh, sorry about that, Lisa. If it's going to be more help with an experiment, I'm going to have to pass..." Lincoln said back.

Lisa shook her head and patted her elder brother's shoulder, "Worry not, for that is not my request. Given that is it an hour and a half post meridian, I'm in the mood for some nutritious sustenance and assumed you can lend what some on the street may call a helping hand."

"Oh, well in that case, certainly I can! I'm feeling of the peckish sort myself, so I can help you out with that." Lincoln said delightfully, "Let me guess, would peanut butter and jelly be on your mind?"

Lisa smiled, "While I don't believe you possess ESP, you do have a tendency to know my preferred noontide specialty.. I shall await for such within the family living quarters."

Both headed on downstairs upon such an agreement struck. Lisa headed over to the living room while Lincoln rounded around the kitchen. He got to work on Lisa's lunch request first, that of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off and the sandwich itself cut in half into isosceles triangles. Next, he put it aside for a moment he could search for something for his own consumption intake, but after some consideration, he might as well make due with a PB&J, too.

After making the second one for himself, Lincoln got out a plate, placed both sandwiches on it and just to round things out, he also got a pair of juice boxes for thirst quenching. With everything at hand, he returned to the living room.

"Okay, here we are, Lisa. I went with sandwiches for the both of us, plus some juice, too." Lincoln showed off.

"Ah, much obliged." Lisa said.

Sitting down to the couch next to his sister, Lincoln put the plate on the table in front of them before both retrieved their respective sandwiches and juice boxes.

Before finishing up in the minutes that passed, there was a topic worth discussing that the Loud family genius wanted to bring up.

"By the way, for what it's worth, Lincoln, I want to extend my apologies for how my latest experiment caused mild scathing to your supercilium region." Lisa said.

"What to my where?" Lincoln confusedly wondered.

"Put more simply, burning a portion of your eyebrows." Lisa clarified.

"Ah, that. It's all good, Lisa. Only the very most edges of them suffered any real harm, so it's not that big of a deal." Lincoln said assuredly, "Besides, it could've been worse. Imagined if Lori was the one helping you and something similar happened to her, no matter how minor the damage. You know how she gets with her eyebrows."

Both shared a quick laugh and then wrapped up with their lunch.

"My most gracious of thanks to you, elder brother, for this savory meal." Lisa said.

"No problem, Lisa. It was my pleasure." Lincoln responded with grin.

He sat up from the couch, gathered up the plate and empty juice boxes to take back to the kitchen. He threw away the juice boxes and put the plate away in the sink. As he scanned around, Lincoln noticed an empty mustard container curiously just sitting there on the counter. He assumed perhaps someone used it as part of their own lunch or something similar, but for whatever reason didn't dispose of it, so he chose to take the responsibility of throwing it away himself.

Right as he tossed that container away and started leaving, Lincoln paused, then he chortled.

"Mustard...now there's something else that caused a real and wholly unnecessary divide between myself and my sisters." He said to himself, "All that resulting in that limo I got to ride in and how I briefly became a total snob after hanging with that Lord Tetherby fellow. Thankfully, everything ended well, especially after that rough night I had..."

* * *

_A_ _t the living room within the Loud house_ _, the sisters were all together_ _watching TV, all while harboring a great deal of annoyance toward Lincoln. Earlier in the day, he won a mustard eating contest to earn the right to ride in a limo for the day. He also promised his sisters that after he had his own time in the limo, he'd come back and pick them up so they could all go the Burpin' Burger. However, that never happened because Lincoln got sidetracked by hanging out with an upscale heir named Lord Tetherby. In that time with the affluent man, Lincoln developed at snooty attitude_ _and dismissed his sisters' furor at him as he prepared to attend a gala with Tetherby that night. Because of all that, the sisters didn't give much thought or care about him, believing he was living it up._

_Their time together would be interrupted when a phone jingle caught their attention. The ringtone belonged to Lori's phone. She checked who the caller is, but it was from an unfamiliar number. Regardless, she chose to answer it anyway._

" _Um...hello?"_

" _Hey there, Lori..." Came the surprisingly timid voice of Lincoln._

_Lori lowered her phone and turned to the rest of her sisters in annoyance, "Ugh, it's Lincoln."_

" _Oh, great..." Lynn grumbled, "What's he trying to do? Bragging to us about what a great time he's having at that stupid rich guy's party?"_

" _After what he did today, too? Talk about having no class!" Lola muttered._

_Lori groaned, but nevertheless went back to her phone._

" _What do you want, Lincoln?" She asked him, "Not that we really care, and I say 'we' because everyone else is literally within earshot of this."_

" _I need you to get me out of here." Lincoln said, "Right now, you're my only option at this rate."_

 _Lori raised her eyebrow in suspicion, "Get you out? Aren't you at that dumb gala you rubbed in all our faces_ _earlier_ _? And y_ _ou_ _have that limo of yours_ _to get you to and from there_ _, so why are you calling me in the first place?"_

" _I don't have the limo anymore, Lori, and I'm not at the gala either!" Lincoln shouted from the other line, "I'm lost somewhere in the middle of town and I can't think of any other way of getting back home unless you try to get me."_

_By now, Lori was softening her demeanor a little bit, but there were some among her who were more cynical._

" _Methinks this is some hapless scheme he's pulling to try garnering our sympathy." Lisa suggested, "I would advise not falling for such dissimulation."_

" _I agree." Lucy added, "This sounds way too much like something I'd do to get you all to feel sorry for me...and it'd probably wouldn't work anyway."_

_Most of the other sisters were concurring with one another, but a heartrending sound coming from the other end of Lori's phone would put a halt on everything._

" _Hey, was that Lincoln just now?" Leni wondered._

_Everyone remained quiet and listened in more intently. Sure enough, they appeared to hear the sound of Lincoln ostensibly sobbing lightly._

" _It sounds like he's crying." Luan said as she sounded a little worried, "Would he really fake doing such a thing?"_

" _I wouldn't think so, dude..." Luna agreed, joining in with the growing consensus of concern, "Maybe our little bro really is lost somewhere out there."_

_As the sisters began reversing course from their original feelings of scorn towards Lincoln to now being troubled about his condition and whereabouts, he spoke up again._

" _Lori..." Lincoln said tearfully, "Are you still there?"_

" _Yeah, I am." Lori answered, "In fact, as I just said a moment ago, we're all listening right now."_

_Lincoln sniffled before he continued, "Listen, I'm so sorry for the way I acted today and for not taking you all to the Burpin' Burger. I don't what got into me, 'cause that's not who I am. You're all probably still mad at me, and rightly so. But still, I feel so alone and scared now and just want to go back home. So, can you come get me, Lori? Please?"_

_Lori released a very prolonged sigh, but got a determined look on her face shortly after. No matter what he did to her and the rest of their sisters, he was still their brother who they all cared for and there was no way she was going to let him suffer alone in the night._

" _I'll be right over." She responded with assurance, "Can you try to give me a rough idea of where you are?"_

" _Well...there's this convenience store right where I just was." Lincoln said, "I think right across from there is a...laundromat, I think? And then I see a something that might be a salon or something like that…?"_

" _Hmm, you know, I think I may know where that is." Lori said confidently, "Don't worry, Lincoln, I be there as soon as I can."_

_Hanging up her phone, she got up from the couch as she retrieved and twirled the keys to Vanzilla around her index finger. She was almost about to step out the door when she heard a shouted requested._

" _Wait, can't we come with you?" Lana asked._

" _I appreciate the thought, Lana, but I think I can take care of this myself." Lori replied, "You guys just stay here and I'll hopefully be back with Lincoln soon."_

_With that said, she headed off to bring back their lost brother._

_In the time since her departure, the atmosphere within the Loud house was one of uneasiness as the remainder of the sisters waited anxiously for Lori to come back home with Lincoln along with her. To think earlier in the day they couldn't care less what he was doing since he began hobnobbing in the high life and how he neglected them in return. Now all that mattered was the hope that their only brother would be brought home soon in one piece._

_Fortunately, their worries would soon be alleviated when heard the sound of Vanzilla pulling up on the driveway. A few seconds later and the front door opened up with Lori ushering Lincoln with her inside. A collective gasp was shared by their sisters once they got a good look at what their brother appeared to have been through._

" _OM-gosh! Lincoln, are you okay?" Leni asked, getting down to knee level with him._

_Lincoln gave his second oldest sister a sorrowful look and then walked past everyone and up the stairs._

" _Hey, wait up, Lincoln!" Lynn shouted concernedly at him, "Where are you going?"_

" _It's okay, Lynn. He told me on the way back that he wanted to get a quick shower and a change of clothes first, then he'll come on back." Lori explained._

_Just a little under ten minutes later, Lincoln did return having been scrubbed up and changed into his pajamas given that it was nighttime and all. He sat down on the couch, where Luan and Luna joined next to him from each side, Lynn and Leni next to those respective sisters, Lori sitting in front of him on the coffee table and finally all the younger sisters gathered around on the floor._

" _So are you going to tell us what happened to you, Lincoln?" Luan inquired while she placed a hand on his back._

" _Yeah, you looked positively ragged when you came back, little bro." Luna noted as she took a moment in checking over him just for the sake of it, "I mean, seriously, what did happen?"_

" _Well...I'm not entirely if I do want to talk about it." Lincoln stated, his voice beginning to quiver, "But safe to say I probably had it coming after what I did to you guys..."_

_He lowered his head down in shame and began quietly sniffling._

" _Hey now, don't say something like that, Lincoln." Lori said to him, putting her fingers underneath his chin and making him look at her, "No matter what happened today between us, there's no reason to suggest what you went through tonight was something you had coming or deserved."_

" _Are you sure about that?" Lincoln questioned, "After all, I promised you all that I would take you to the Burpin' Burger in the limo and I completely failed in that respect. Not only that, but I acted like a total jerk, as if I viewed myself as being above you guys. Why didn't I deserve getting chased after by dogs, having my dress pants ripped off from a chain link fence while evading said dogs, getting mud splashed on me from a passing truck and getting thrown out by the gala's security and landing in a garbage can? I've been such a horrible brother to you all."_

_By now, his sniffling transitioned into very gentle crying. In response, Luna and Luan encircled their arms around him in a tight joint embrace._

" _Lincoln, please don't beat yourself up like this." Luan said in an effort to console him, "I think I can speak for all of us that we forgive you for everything. All that matters right now is that you are back home safe with us."_

" _I guess so..." Lincoln said on top of more sniffling, "But still, I wish I could make it up to you all somehow..."_

" _There's no need to, bro. If anything, you being here is all we could ask for at the moment." Luna reassured him._

" _Yeah, but if it does make you feel any better, we can still all go to the Burpin' Burger together tomorrow if you like." Lynn suggested, "I'd be down with that."_

" _Me too!" Lana shouted._

" _Me three!" Lola added in kind._

" _Same here." Lucy chimed in more softy._

" _I too will admit to still having a hankering for convenient comestibles." Lisa said joining in on the growing consensus._

" _Goo-goo!" Lily babbled happily._

_After taking in a breath of air and then exhaling, Lincoln looked on at all of his sisters and showed them an appreciative smile. He may not understand entirely, but knowing that they had it in them to forgive him for his actions and still were interested in doing what they had originally planned out was something he'll be grateful for._

" _You guys mean it?" He asked, "You'd still want to go there?"_

" _Of course we would, Lincoln." Leni answered sweetly, "We would love to do that just so we can do something together as a family."_

_As she said her piece, Leni scooted over a little so she could get herself involved in the hug of her brother that Luna and Luan were still engaging in. Soon after, everyone else joined in giving Lincoln one big group hug, something he immensely loved._

" _Wow...I don't know what to say but thank you, everybody." Lincoln said, reveling in the affection of his sisters, "And how about this: I can try to call Kirby, the driver of the limo, since I do have his number handy. I'll apologize to him, since I was a jerk to him as well, and see if he could perhaps give us all one more ride."_

" _Well, that's sweet of you if you're able to, Lincoln, but I don't think that would literally be necessary," Lori said, "Not that it wouldn't hurt, but as Leni just said, the only thing that matters is that we do it together."_

_Lincoln smiled again as he reciprocated the hug that all his sisters were in on, at least to the best of his ability. Again, he really appreciated the willingness of them to be able to forgive him so easily for any misdeeds of his and he'll forever cherish that about them._

* * *

"Lincoln! Yo, Lincoln!"

Once again, much like earlier in the morning when Lucy did the same up in the attic, Lincoln was so lost in thought to the point he wasn't registering his name being enunciated. This time it took one hand shaking his shoulder and the other snapping fingers right in his face to regain himself. He turned to see Luna having been the one who got him unstuck and out of his trance.

"Oh, uh...hey, Luna. What's going on?" Lincoln asked.

"I should be the one asking you that, bro." Luna said, maintaining a grip on his shoulder, "You were just kinda standing there like the lights were on, but no one was home. Is there something up?"

"No, it's nothing serious, Luna. That being said though, it is the third time today that I zoned out while in thought." Lincoln observed, "It's been a result of thinking back to various times spent between us and our sisters, so it's nothing to worry about."

"Well, if you insist it isn't something worth getting worked up over, then I guess I won't bug you about much." Luna said while shrugging, then she smiled, "But hey, on an unrelated note, I do believe I heard you strumming along on that guitar I handed down to you some time ago. Sounds like you're still trying to get the hang of things."

Lincoln chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, you can say that. I'm never gonna be quite as good as you are on that thing nor do I plan to or want to, but at least I'm giving it some effort."

Luna grinned warmly, "Hey, that's all I could ever ask for, dude. But since you brought it up, I was gonna have myself a solo jam sesh later on today, and maybe now instead I could use that time in helping you out some. How would you like that?"

"Sure, I can take you up on that." Lincoln answered affirmatively, "How does some point after dinner sound?"

Luna nodded, "I'm down with that."

Soon after getting a quick ruffle of his hair, Lincoln went past Luna so he could go back upstairs and take another moment of reprieve in his room. He thought another good idea to pass the time on by would be to read a couple of comics. Just for his convenience, there was a small stack sitting on his dresser that he can easily access. He perused through the stack to see which ones would be worth reading. Then, when he reached the bottom, he saw a piece of paper laying underneath all those comics.

"Huh, what's this?" Lincoln wondered out loud.

Grabbing the paper and giving it a look, it didn't take long to find out what it was. It was a letter written by some of his sisters that begun a reconciliation process after one of the more eventful nights of Lincoln's life, should one want to put it like that…

* * *

_On a simple moonlight evening, Lincoln was taking his time in heading back home. He was trying to delay the inevitable in that the moment he stepped foot in the house, he was all but certainly going to be greeted by the visages of four very none too pleased sisters of his._

_Taking a deep breath, Lincoln went up the walkway and slowly opened the front door partway. He peeked inside and appeared to see no one around. Perhaps thinking nothing would happen, he stepped fully inside, sighing as he closed the door._

_But that would end up being wishful thinking when right as he turned around, those very four sisters, in this case Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lucy, were bearing down on him and "none too pleased" may have been too kind of a description when noting the displeasure they had on their faces._

" _Oh, heh...hey there, girls...how's your night been?" Lincoln inquired anxiously._

" _Oh, just the usual..." Lucy began calmly._

" _You know, like hanging around with each other..." Luan added, also generally tranquil._

" _Until we learned that a certain brother of ours just might've messed up big time!" Lynn said, dropping any pretense of subtly or cordiality._

_Lincoln gulped and laughed softly, "Well, as much as I'd love to get into everything, but I best be headed for bed right about now..."_

_He tried walking past everyone, but that proved to be a fruitless endeavor. He immediately felt two pair of hands belonging to Luna and Lynn grabbing on to each of his wrists._

" _Oh, you're not getting out of this one too easily, bro!" Luna said agitated, "You're coming with us!"_

_Not being to get another word in, Lincoln felt himself being pulled along by Luna and Lynn, while Luan and Lucy followed closely by to make sure he didn't attempt an escape._

_An admitted nerve wracking few seconds from Lincoln's end later lead everyone out the back door and to the garage, and upon arrival, Lucy stood in front of the side door to guard it while the remaining three sisters stood in front of their confused brother._

" _All right, Lincoln, you're not going anywhere until you give us the best possible explanation as why you handled everything so irresponsibly tonight!" Lynn shouted contentiously._

" _Yeah, how could you ditch each_ _your dates_ _and leave them with your own friends,_ _dude_ _?"_ _Luna added._

_Though he was intimidated at first by the suddenness of his predicament, Lincoln decided he wasn't going to take this laying down. It was that crack from Lynn about calling him irresponsible that changed his attitude. If anything, the irresponsible parties were the ones standing before him._

" _Excuse me? I'm the irresponsible one? Funny enough, what I would define as irresponsible is four sisters who in their infinite wisdom felt it was genius of them to plonk four dates on me at the same time likely without consulting each other or without asking me in advance if I would take part at all!" Lincoln countered coarsely, "I don't know if any of you realize this, but I'm a fully independent individual with the complete free will to choose how his own social life can go without being manipulated like I'm your personal marionette!"_

_Luna narrowed her eyes in his direction, "Well, how about I drop some knowledge on you and hope you pick it up. Maybe, and I do mean just maybe, had you told us for the get go that you weren't going to the dance, maybe none of this would have happened! Ever though of that, huh?"_

_Lincoln folded his arms, "Do you honestly think you would have given me that choice?"_

" _Duh, of course!" Lynn answered abrasively, "All you had to do was say something like 'I'm not going to the dance tonight' and that's it! No need to have lied to us and made your own grave like Luan told you earlier."_

_Lincoln scoffed, "More like I dug a modest size hole, then you made it much bigger and shoved me down it without any chance of escape!"_

" _Boy, you're desperate to pokes holes and dig to find flaws, aren't you?" Luan questioned, taking a brief moment to giggle at the puns she made, "But seriously, Luna and Lynn are right, you know. You could've been honest from the beginning_ _and saved yourself a whole lot of trouble."_

_By this point, Lincoln was really starting to lose his nerve, "Guys, aren't any of you gonna admit to even the slightest bit of fault here?! You didn't see any problems at all on your end or that you're making a bigger deal out of this than it should be? In fact, should you allow me to ask something back without you all jumping down my throat, let me posit this to you. Obviously from the sounds of it, all your friends called you about tonight's events before I came back home. Now, did any of them sound annoyed when they did that?"_

_Each of the sisters took a moment to soften their stances just slightly and then they each shook their heads "no"._

" _Okay, next, did any of them use the word 'ditch' with regards to everything?"_

_Again, the sisters shook their heads._

" _And finally, did any of them complain_ _about whichever of my friends they ended up with?"_

_Thrice in a row, more shaking of the heads resulted from the sisters._

" _Well, if that's the case, why are you getting so mad at me in the first place?!" Lincoln rounded out the line of questioning irritably._

_At first, the sisters did appear to understand where Lincoln was coming from. However, it was a very fleeting moment and they quickly returned to their hardened stances from before._

" _Hey, don't turn this around against us, bro!" Luna retorted, "It doesn't matter how our friends felt, because you promised us that you could handle them at the dance and ended up blowing it!"_

" _I DID NOT PROMISE YOU ANYTHING!" Lincoln furiously stated, that last nerve of his finally breaking, "_ _You simply foisted upon me those dates while threatening and guilt tripping me into going without giving me an escape route out of things. And hey, like you all just admitted reluctantly, your friends ultimately sounded like they had a good time! Heck, I had a good time, too, not only because I went to the arcade like I originally planned, but I also did so with Ronnie Anne, and last I checked, isn't hanging out with her what you really wanted_ _out of me in the first place_ _?"_

_He took a moment to exhale before he resumed speaking, albeit this time in a more calm tone._

" _But no, apparently as you just admitted, the feelings of your friends don't matter, which_ _is_ _all but a subtle admission that you never really cared about how I would feel about everything, too._ _And now, I don't really care myself. Now, can you try to leave me alone and let me get ready for bed?"_

_Exhaling a second time, Lincoln began leaving and none of his sisters tried to stop him this time, unlike their vigorous efforts in dragging him to the garage in the beginning. He got up to where Lucy was standing near the door, and after a moment of hesitation, she stepped aside allowed her brother to leave._

_Once he had left, Lucy took a glance over to her sisters, "Sigh. Let's admit it, you guys, he is probably right on some level."_

_Luna, Luan and Lynn didn't respond, but their faces had gotten more sullen and all three did sigh together._

_Several hours later, as the morning had begun, Lincoln slowly starting to wake up. He yawned and followed that up with a small groan. The previous evening's events made it somewhat difficult to get the best night's sleep in his case. Though feeling justified in his defense from that night against his sisters, there was a creeping sense of guilt that built inside himself_ _in the time since then. Perhaps they did have a point in how he should've have said he didn't want to go the dance in the first place and thus the cascading sequence of events thereafter would've not happened._

_Regardless, he sighed and got out of bed, but not even after taking a couple of steps, Lincoln looked down and saw a piece of paper on the floor. Judging by the fact it was only a couple of inches away from the door, it must have been slipped underneath at some point for him to find. He reached down and noticed it was a letter written directly to him as he read its contents._

" _Dear Lincoln,_

 _While we want to respect your wishes of leaving you alone, we feel the need to also somehow address everything from what you told us earlier and everything else_ _quickly_ _._

 _First, we do want to apologize for the very rough way we handled you by dragging you_ _out_ _to the garage. That was wrong of us and if we really wanted to talk to you, it should've been done so on your own merits._

_Second, you were right, we should've been happy that our friends did actually have a good time no matter how slighted we felt about your actions at first. Speaking of feelings, we should've also put more thought about how you felt before saddling you with those dates. We really thought at first we were helping you out, but never did we consider how complicated things could get for you, and yes, we will also concede that we didn't talk with each other beforehand, too._

_Finally, just broadly speaking, we are sorry for all that happened altogether. We still maintain that you should've been more honest and upfront about not wanting to go to the dance, but on the same token, nothing we did helped you_ _r_ _situation, either._

 _So if you're still too mad at us,_ _we get it and we'll leave you alone still. But if you are willing to talk things over, we're ready when you are. Once again, we're sorry._

_Love (and we really do emphasize that word to express how we feel about you),_

_Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lucy."_

_Meanwhile, those same four sisters were downstairs together in the kitchen, where Luan and Lucy sat at the table while Luna and Lynn were leaning against the counter, all looking they had a troubled night between them._

" _So, did anyone get much sleep after last night?" Lucy asked._

" _Pretty much a neg on my end, Luce." Luna responded with a sigh, "Well, maybe I did, but everything with our bro made it a heck of a challenge."_

" _Yeah,_ _I'd try to make a joke about everything to lighten_ _things up_ _, but...I'm just not in the mood now..." Luan said_ _with her own distressing groan._

" _You know, I'll be the first to straight up admit that we're the ones who truly messed up, not Lincoln." Lynn opined sadly._

 _No disagreement was shared with that statement among the rest of Lynn's sisters, and_ _as_ _their rumination of the previous night's argument with their brother continued, they all heard the sound of the somebody coming down the stairs slowly. Their attention turned over to the noises and seconds later, they saw Lincoln coming on in once he saw them gathered._

" _Oh, uh...good morning, Lincoln." L_ _uan said, trying to put on a decent enough welcoming smile._

" _Morning, you guys..." Lincoln greeted back, albeit with some hesitance._

_He walked further inside the kitchen to join in with his sisters, all of which seemed unsure how to proceed with things if at all._

" _So...I got your letter." He said following some awkward silence._

" _Oh, well...that's good." Lynn said, laughing uneasily afterward._

 _More silence followed as_ _Lincoln looked around anxiously and rubbed his arm._

" _Are you okay, Lincoln?" Lucy asked._

_Lincoln sighed and looked like he was about to speak, but he lowered his head and frowned._

" _Aw, something's gotta be up,_ _little bro." Luna said concernedly as she approached him, "I'm guessing it's something to do with all the business from last night?"_

 _Lincoln simply nodded,_ _indicating that he was perhaps ready to talk again about that very subject._ _By then, Luan, Lynn and Lucy had also joined in being around him, too,_ _all prepared in helping out._

" _All I had to do was say that I didn't want to go to the dance..." He said softly_ _after more silence had passed,_ _"Nothing else would'_ _ve_ _happened if I'd been totally honest with you. Everything else was my fault because I didn't say anything..."_

 _He put one of his hands over his face ashamedly_ _and shook his head._

" _Now, hang on, Lincoln, you shouldn't be blaming yourself entirely." Luan spoke up, "Yes, it would've helped if you'd been upfront about your plans_ _for the night_ _, but really, that hardly excuses_ _us_ _p_ _iling on a bunch of dates on a moment's notice believing you would juggle them all at the same time."_

" _You were also right in that we really should have considered how you would feel about such an impossible arrangement_ _before it was made_ _." Lucy added._

" _That's all true, but hey, chin up, Linc. You did manage to make our friends all happy by having them each get matched up with one of your friends with who they sounded like made for solid pairs. That should count for something." Lynn noted._

" _But in any event, we're all sorry_ _for our part of everything, bro. You know that already for reading that letter of ours, but it probably means more hearing it from us in person." Luna said._

_Following that apology, Luna moved the hand of Lincoln's that covered his face and lifted his head gently so he could look up at her._

" _And speaking of apologies, Lincoln, we're sorry again for how rough you were treated once you came back_ _home_ _." She continued saying, "Being the oldest of this group, I'll take full responsibility for that."_

" _Although technically, I was the one who came up with that whole routine of us dragging you to the garage and everything,_ _so maybe that part's truly my fault._ _" Lynn mentioned,_ _raising her hand to draw everyone's attention._

_Luna glanced over to Lynn and put a hand on her head, "Yeah, you're right, LJ, but you suggesting it and me giving complete approval of it I'd say are two separate things in this case. So really, I'm the one at fault here if you ask me."_

" _Sigh..." Lucy enunciated, "How about instead of any of us saying anyone is entirely at fault, we just instead all admit that we each in some way made last night difficult and leave it at that?"_

 _Luan chuckled mildly, "Maybe you're right, Lucy. Better than to be a bunch of professional mopers trying to one up another_ _on that front_ _. With that said, I believe I know one way we can all make it up to Lincoln right now..."_

 _Stepping even closer to her brother from his left side, Luan pulled Lincoln into a hug, which then lead_ _the other three sisters to do the same with Luna in front of him, Lynn to his right and Lucy from behind. Soon enough, he was surrounded in a four way sisterly embrace, something he took great relief in._

" _Thanks, you guys..." Lincoln simply said._

* * *

Lincoln had a particularly big smile as he recalled that hug he was wrapped in near the end of that scenario. Besides apologizing, his sisters also promised that they'll give him much more advance notice should something like that ever happen again with regards to setting him up with anyone and he reemphasized his own commitment to be more honest on his end of things, too.

Having finished up another bout of reminiscence today, Lincoln refocused his efforts back into comic reading like he initially planned.

For the next hour, Lincoln was hooked on the adventures within and the only thing that took his focus away was from a sudden knocking on his door. He paused for a moment, expecting who it was to announce themselves, only for more knocking to come next.

Sighing somewhat in annoyance, Lincoln sat up from his bed and opened up the door to see Lori standing before him.

"Uh, hey there, Lori. What's going on?" He asked.

"Don't you remember, Lincoln? We literally talked about this yesterday that we planned a sibling meeting around this time right now." Lori answered.

"Oh, wait, you mean _now_ now?" Lincoln asked with the added emphasis.

"Uh, yes, that's the plan." Lori said, sounding just a little impatient, "So are you coming?"

Though thoroughly confused, Lincoln nodded, "Um...all right, yeah, I'll be right over."

With a simple exhale, Lori turned and walked down the hall back to her and Leni's room, the usual locale for meetings. Meanwhile, Lincoln gathered up the comics he was just reading, put them back on the dresser and then he also made the walk on down to join in on the meeting with his sisters.

From there, the usual manner such meetings proceeded went on. For Lincoln, it was a little hard for him to focus, since for all intents and purposes, this meeting was nothing too out of the ordinary. So little attention he was paying to it that, once again, he found himself thinking back to another time in the past, one that also revolved around a sibling meeting to settle one of their dumber exploits in recent memory. Needless to say, it was about a certain metaphorical card none of them were keen on playing ever again…

* * *

_In the evening hours, the Loud siblings had gathered in Lori and Leni's room in order to settle another bizarre and frankly ridiculous situation they'd gotten themselves into. The banging of a heeled shoe like a gavel initiated the meeting into order._

" _Okay, guys, we know why we're here..." Lori began with, "We need to figure out proper system about how we handle both inviting friends over for activities and when we individually take turns doing such activities and what have you ourselves. The floor is now open to any suggestions."_

_Right away, Lori noticed Lincoln raising his hand up in the air._

" _Yes, Lincoln?" She inquired._

_Lincoln stood up, "Actually, it's not a suggestion I have, but there's something I'd like to say if I'm granted the opportunity. I'll make it quick."_

_Lori took a couple seconds to contemplate his request, and ultimately granted it, "All right, but like you said, make it quick. We literally can't waste too much time now."_

_Permission having been granted, Lincoln went to the middle of the room so that he could have the full attention of his sisters._

" _Listen, I think I can be man enough to admit that this mess was pretty much my fault. None of the madness that followed wouldn't have been possible today had I not invited Clyde over and abused the friend card like nobody's business yesterday." He conceded unambiguously._

_Almost as quickly as he admitted to such, he went to take his seat back on the floor._

" _Well, um...thank you, Lincoln, for taking responsibility on your end." Lori said, genuinely surprised by the brevity of his statement, "Now with that out of the way we shall..."_

" _Hold up, Lori, can I say something now?" Lynn requested while interrupting her sister, "And no, it's nothing to do with suggestions, but instead it's something I wish to say to Lincoln."_

" _Ugh...fine, as long as it's quick as what he's already said." Lori said, starting to get a little annoyed._

_Lynn nodded and took her turn in getting up, then directing her attention straight to Lincoln._

" _You know, in a sense, Lincoln, maybe I'm actually the one who's really at fault. Yes, you abusing the friend card wasn't so cool of you, but you may have not gotten the idea had I not invoked such privileges myself at first when I invited Margo to watch that double header a couple of days earlier." She theorized._

_Lincoln was surprised by such an idea, "Uh, I don't know if you should take any blame for this, Lynn. Put it this way, at least in you and Margo's case, all you did was watch a pair of baseball games, unlike what I did with Clyde where I pretty much wrecked you guys' day all for my own benefit."_

" _True, but still, I don't mind admitting some fault here." Lynn said, "But it's not just about that, though. I was also the one that really got the ball rolling in each of us inviting ever larger numbers of friends all in the name of getting our way."_

" _Yeah, and while we're on the subject, Lincoln, we were all talking just before you joined us and we realized that this friend card silliness featured a symptom of a bigger problem that we thought had been taken care of long ago." Luan added._

_Lincoln turned his head curiously, "And what would that be?"_

" _To put it simply, we c_ _ame to the conclusion_ _that today's follies were technically the byproduct of the observable fact_ _that we as a sister collective used our tenfold numbers advantage to, as some on the street would bluntly say, gang up on you and as Luan so amply implied, it has been more than a serious time cycle since such disadvantageous tactics were deployed." Lisa explained_ _with intricacies signature of her._

_As the resident genius wrapped up her explanation, most everyone else muttered in agreement, except for one in the moment._

" _Well, I'm guessing we are literally not going to solve to the issue we came together here in the first place tonight, are we?" Lori opined following an annoyed sigh._

" _Uh, why is it so important for you that we get th_ _at_ _done tonight, sis?" Luna asked once she heard her older sister sound off, "We have all the time in the world to settle such_ _stuff, ya know."_

_Lori rolled her eyes, "Well, pardon me if I feel this was something that needed to be settled posthaste and promptly before another such incident ever happens again."_

_Despite the delay in such settlement, she sighed once more and shifted her gaze to Lincoln._

" _But in_ _any event and in_ _all honesty, they're right, Lincoln._ _We_ _did have_ _to resort in conspiring behind your back the other night and teaming up against you today, which is something that we thought we all have improved on in not doing that much of_ _it_ _anymore, only for us to backslide into old habits again." Lori admitted regretfully._

" _Yeah, no one likes feeling that everyone is against you,_ _and you know that better than any of us, Lincoln._ _"_ _Lana said._

" _No doubt about that." Lynn agreed, "The only other times someone other than you had experienced such a feeling that I can think of are when we rebelled against Lori_ _that one night_ _when she was left in charge of us, or Lucy during that time she thought we were walking all over her, or heck, even me when you all thought I needed to be taken down a peg because of how much I bragged whenever I'd win during our game nights."_

 _F_ _or his end of things, Lincoln grinned weakly and chuckled, "Well, yeah, I'll admit to not liking most of the times before when you all came as one against me, but today? I don't blame you in a sense. It might've been the proper respon_ _se_ _to what I did yesterday."_

" _But was it, though?" Lucy questioned, "I'm not so sure myself."_

" _Yeah, I mean, it'd be one thing if you'd pulled the friend card for like a week or_ _a_ _few days_ _, then we could_ _possibly_ _excuse doing what we did today_ _to you initially_ _. But just one day? I dunno, that seems out_ _ta_ _proportion,_ _bro." Luna said._

" _Plus, when you_ _take_ _you and Clyde on one side, and how we each brought one friend over at first, that's a 20-on-2 disadvantage against you." Lori noted, "No matter how you look at it, that's literally as unfair as it can get to you, Lincoln."_

" _And things got worse once we started really acting like dummies and brought a whole bunch more friends and turned the house into a mess." Lola said, shuddering a little, "I don't want to relieve that!"_

" _Me neither!" Leni added, "Like, what were we thinking?"_

" _Okay, okay, I get everything, you guys!" Lincoln stated concernedly, "I understand that you all feel bad about today's fiasco and so do I, but let's just say we all did our part in contributing to the chaos and we'll all vow to never again let that happen. With that said, and like Lori wanted us to do in the first place, let's get to work on how we'll take turns in doing stuff around the house and such."_

 _A_ _fter he said that, the sisters all shared a smile in Lincoln's direction and all verbalized scattered agreements and words of understanding to him._

" _Well, all right, then. Thanks, Lincoln, and if I may, I'll speak for everyone else in also vowing we'll continue working on not ganging up on you too much again, or really toward any one of us for that matter." Lori said unequivocally, "Now, let's finally get back to business..."_

* * *

" _LINCOLN!"_

In an instant, Lincoln was shocked back into reality when all his sisters shouted his name.

"AH!" He yelled out, shaking his head, "What?!"

"We were trying to get your attention and you weren't answering us! What gives?" Lola said peevishly.

Lincoln grumbled indistinctly before speaking up again, "It's nothing. Don't worry yourselves none."

"It doesn't seem like nothing, bro. This sounds awfully similar to how you were when I ran into you earlier." Luna mentioned.

"Huh, what do you mean, Luna?" Lana asked.

"Well, Lans, a little while ago I found Lincoln kinda standing around in the kitchen and he claimed to be lost in thought about thinking over times together with us." Luna replied.

"Wait, what now?" Lynn wondered, turning over to her brother, "What does she mean by that, Lincoln?"

Lincoln sighed in frustration, "Seriously, it's nothing! Please, you guys, don't get so worked up about it!"

As he said that, Lincoln stood up and chose to leave the meeting abruptly. After his departure, the sisters shared looks of concern among them.

"Yeah, there's definitely something up." Lori said, getting scattered agreeing statements from everyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, a little bit of intrigue to end this one. And then there was one...and we'll all be together again when that time comes.


	8. Relief by the Evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, at long last, the finale is here! Gonna keep this brief as to not hold you up too long.
> 
> For this final set of flashbacks, they are based on "Predict Ability", "Garage Banned" and "The Whole Picture". It's worth mentioning that the latter two were partly inspired by suggestions that I got some time ago by users BrentheLoudFan2020 and BarnMaker, respectively. They're not quite as they suggested, as I've modified the initial ideas quite a bit, but I believe they still turned out well.
> 
> Anyway, no more delays and let's get this thing finished with once and for all.
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

In the immediate aftermath of his abrupt departure of the sibling meeting, Lincoln once again found himself inside the walls of his room. His zoning out on his sisters, the fourth such instance in the day after having similar cases were Lucy, Lynn and Luna had to snap him back to his senses, had likely caused a fair amount of concern among them, especially after his small outburst before he left. He assumed that any moment now they would revert to their instinctive desire to prod, meddle and press him on what's up.

But as the minutes turned into hours, Lincoln didn't get a knock on the door and nary a peep from any one of his sisters. Either they may have plans to talk to him later on about his spacing out issues or perhaps they did take his claim of it being nothing worth getting worried about to heart and chose not to follow up on it at all.

No matter the reason, he did feel relieved that none of them at least presently seemed to want to pester him about it and felt comfortable enough in leaving his room for that reason. But only halfway in walking down the hall later was he grabbed on by the wrist and suddenly dragged along.

"Whoa, what the-" He uttered.

In a flash, Lincoln found himself inside Lori and Leni's room, where he also soon realized that Leni was the one who unceremoniously brought him along with her.

"Leni, what…what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he regained his bearings.

"Oh, it's not much, Lincoln. I just wanted to quickly get your opinion on something." Leni answered.

Lincoln glanced over and did notice a collection of clothing spread across Leni's bed, but something greatly confused him about this. The clothes were a scattershot menagerie with no real consistency to the choices involved, and given how normally meticulous and precise his sister takes such selections, something felt very off to him.

"Uh, why are you asking me instead of Lori or any one of our sisters?" Lincoln pressed her.

"Well...I..." Leni tried saying, her eyes darting around.

Now Lincoln was thinking that something's up. The combination of the uncoordinated gaggle of clothes and Leni's nervous diction rose his suspicions greatly and he had a funny idea as to what the real intention of hers was.

"Leni, no." Lincoln said coolly.

"What?" Leni wondered innocently.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Lincoln stated more sternly.

" _What?_ " Leni reiterated.

Lincoln groaned and folded his arms, "I see what's going on here. You don't actually want my opinion on anything relating to clothes or fashion. This jumbled up mix of clothes with no sense of real organization that's unlike you is a dead giveaway. You're only using that as an excuse to isolated me long enough to ask about what happened earlier. Isn't that right?"

Leni tried to maintain a stature of incredulity to such an accusation and attempted to find another excuse, but such a false pretense likely wouldn't have gotten past Lincoln that easily in the first place. She sighed and ultimately capitulated.

"Okay, yes, but can you blame me? I'm getting a little worried about you, Lincoln. Don't I have a right to be that way?" Leni said.

"If it was something truly serious, then yes! But me spacing out during our meeting and some other points in the day really isn't that serious if you ask me!" Lincoln insisted on tersely, "So please, don't get so carried away about this! I'm fine, Leni, so can I just go now?"

He turned and attempted to leave, but not before Leni voiced one last concern.

"Lincoln, if something really is bothering you, please tell someone about it, okay?" She implored to him.

Lincoln sighed, looked back over to her and after a moment, he gave her a simple nod before being on his way.

In a couple of hours time afterwards, the Loud family all gathered at the dinner table. Like with the earlier sibling meeting, Lincoln was the last one to join in on the occasion, just in time for his father to bring in the main course.

"Okay, gang, here it is, fresh from the oven!" Lynn Sr. declared, "My world famous Lynn-sagna! I know, I know, it may be a predicable selection, but hey, it's always a crowd pleaser. Nothing wrong with too much of the same thing if it's hit, am I right, fam?"

Most everyone at the table approved, except for Lincoln, who stayed relatively quiet while maintaining a neutral facial expression. He sighed, which went unnoticed due to everyone chattering and each getting their serving, as he yet again got into this infuriating habit of thinking back to another event from the recent past. The word "predictable" coming from his father spurred this one…

* * *

_Lincoln stepped out of Vanzilla as well as all his sisters as they returned home from school. He walked past them a bit faster and went straight up to his room before plopping his backpack to the side, kicking off his shoes and laid down in his bed sighing._

_The past few days were strange for Lincoln to say the least. Fears of being seen as boring and predictable had spurred a surge in changing his daily habits, clothing choices, what he eats and even how he got to school. A pair of s_ _trange dreams_ _, one that_ _caused him to_ _start these changes and another that saw him be labeled predictable no matter how outrageous and outlandish his antics were_ _to_ _only increased those initial fears._

_However, a talk with his sisters and friends as he was dropped off at school proved his fears were misplaced. They never saw him as boring or predictable and they admitted to each having their own frequent habits which they engaged in. This provided much relief for Lincoln, and Clyde on top of that, who was the only one that showed real concern and anxiety to his best friend's sudden changes._

_But even with that earlier talk, Lincoln still felt some lingering doubts. Besides feeling like his efforts in shaking up his habits and appearance might've been a colossal waste of time,_ _he thought this was another instance of him making a tremendous_ _ly big_ _deal out of nothing if no one close to him had really made big fusses about it consistently. Plus, if he never made similar inferences to anyone else, it did beg the question as to why he made a big deal in the first place and wondered if he was a hypocrite in that respect._

_His ruminations_ _would be interrupted when he heard knocking on his door._

" _Lincoln, mind if I come in?" Lori could be heard saying._

" _Sure..." Lincoln responded kind of flatly._

_The door opened partway and Lori stepped in._

" _Hey, I was wondering if I can talk to you...oh, and so do these two. I wanted to literally do this by myself at first, but they insisted on coming along, too."_

_Lori came inside all they way to show that Luna and Luan were also present._

" _Oh, uh...what you guys want?" Lincoln asked._

" _As Lori just said, we'd like to have a little chat with you, as long as that's okay with you." Luna said._

" _I don't see why not." Lincoln_ _said, sitting up from his bed and moving closer to the edge, "But what about exactly?"_

" _Well, it's about what you said about you being predictable earlier today." Luan replied._

_Lincoln turned his head to the side, "Huh? I thought we already_ _covered that nicely in that you don't see me as such."_

" _True, but I think we only scratched the surface on that topic since we couldn't talk about it further given that you and everyone else had to get on with school._ _B_ _ut now we have_ _literally all the time we can to delve a little more into this." Lori said._

" _Plus, we have to admit the manner you rushed back inside the house before us did raise our concerns and wondered if your problems with predictability had anything to do with it." Luan added._

_With that being said, Luna and Luan joined alongside Lincoln on the bed while Lori closed the door and then brought the chair_ _over that resided in the room and sat down across from everyone else._

" _So...what else was there you wanted talk to me about all this?" Lincoln wondered._

" _I'd say the most obvious thing to ask first is where in the world did you get this idea that anyone saw you as predictable or boring, bro?" Luna asked back._

" _Hmm..." Lincoln began as he gathered his thoughts, "Well, it started about a few days ago when some around me just casually brought up some of my habits. These included when Lisa noted that I generally use the bathroom at around the same time in the morning after I wake up to the point she sets her watch to it, or when Dad had already made me a breakfast burrito before I could put in a request for breakfast and when it was noted to me by Lucy and Lola that I'm often usually last to get inside Vanzilla before we head off for school and the fact I tend to wear the same orange polo shirts. Speaking of school, then Mrs. Johnson paired me up with Clyde for an assignment_ _assuming I always want to him to be my partner for such and finally during gym class, Coach Pacowski presumed I wanted to go the nurse's office so I could get out of rope climbing."_

_H_ _e sighed a little and resumed._

" _But truthfully, those instances alone aren't what encouraged me to implement all those changes of habits and such. It was actually a dream that I had that very same night where visages of Lisa, Dad,_ _Coach and my friend Zach again reiterated my supposed predictability and that was the point where I needed to shake things up...or at least I thought I needed to. And speaking of dreams, I had a second one_ _days later_ _that you could borderline call a nightmare that sort of had the opposite_ _problem where no matter what I did, I was still being seen as boring and predictable. So that's what lead me in finally to confessing to everyone about such this morning before school under the belief that's how I was viewed before getting assurances to the contrary."_

_N_ _ext, Lincoln laughed briefly despite himself,_ _then_ _shook his head and flopped back first onto his bed, sighing agai_ _n and proceeding to wrap his explanation up._

" _And you're right in that despite those assurances, I do_ _still have a couple of issues here, namely how if nobody saw me as boring or predictable at all, it meant that I wasted all that time in changing everything up. Plus, I've never seen you three, anyone else in our family and none of my friends in such ways, so it also made me think I was kind of selfish for only thinking I was perceived as such."_

_For a moment, Lincoln laid there in silence, with the only thing_ _that made him rise back up to a sitting position was when he felt a hand placed on his knee, one that belonged to his oldest sister._

" _Well, first off let me repeat again that no one sees you as either predictable or boring, Lincoln." Lori_ _reiterated to him, "Next, to that last point of yours, I don't think 'selfish' is the right word to describe how your were feeling. I'd say it's perfectly understandable to think you'd be seen by others as having the same few routines again and again, even if as you now know no one was literally looking down on you for that reason. But even if you were seen as such, which again isn't true, that should not mean you had to change much of who you are. Sure, it's nice to mix things up,_ _but that should only happen on your terms and not based others telling you to or what you believe they might think of you."_

" _Lori's right, Lincoln, and honestly if you ask me, such habits define who you are as opposed to being a detriment. Take me for example. I can admit to recycling some of the same puns and pranks, but only because I'd say they're tried, true and dependable and I'm not going to let how others think of them make me change who am I for its own sake_ _and as Lori just said, you shouldn't let others determine that for yourself._ _" Luan_ _said._

_Luna nodded and laid a hand on Lincoln's back, "True, but on the flip side_ _and if you ask me personally,_ _it was actually kind of fun to see_ _what you were gonna do next before we found out why you went to such lengths. I never said this at the time, but I must say you looked positively rockin' in those old threads of mine._ _While I'm mentioning it, since I don't have use for them anymore, you can hang on to those if you'd like, little bro."_

" _Oh…_ _well, that's nice of you, Luna. Thanks." Lincoln said with a brief smile, only for a frown to quickly replace it, "Still, even if you or anybody else thinks my antics of these past few days m_ _ight've been_ _amusing, I don't think it changes the fact that it was a waste of both my and even you guys' time if the premise of predictability on my part wasn't true from the start._ _Plus, I probably caused too much unintended worry for everyone in the first place with all I did, so that doesn't really work in my favor, too._ _"_

" _Well, not to sound like a broken record,_ _but again, you're neither predictable nor boring, Lincoln. Also, I don't think we were worried as much as it was a case of wondering why you were changing yourself so suddenly. I'd compare it to when you similarly changed your appearance in order to try impressing that new girl...or Stella, I should say. We should literally know her name by now, right?" Lori stated, mildly laughing at the end._

_She shifted forward closer to her brother and continued on._

" _But like I said earlier and in that other instance I brought up just now, the point worth driving home to you is that you are both a great person and brother as you are, and the only times you should ever change is on your own accord, not for the sake or behest of somebody else."_

_As he heard the last of Lori's words, Lincoln smiled again. He felt a sensation of relief very much like the one he had from the first talk he had in the morning, and though he still carried some regrets, knowing he had those around him who were understanding of his situation while assuring him_ _whatever misplaced concerns of his is something he'll admire._

" _If that's the case, then thanks again for the reassurances, you guys." Lincoln said appreciatively, "Though there's one question I do have and I don't know why I didn't ask this in the beginning. How come only you three wanted to talk to me about this? Seems like it could've been a discussion worth having with all our sisters present."_

" _Maybe, but as Lori said when she wanted to do this herself, me and Luna insisted on coming along, too, probably because we dd not have much of our own say on the matter this morning, so we wanted to advantage of whatever opportunity that was presented to do so. That's one way to see it I guess." Luan explained._

" _Ah, well, okay then. You're right, now that I think about it, neither you did say much of anything at that point and in that sense, I'm glad you did, so thanks." Lincoln said._

_At the conclusion of this second talk about the subject of predictability, Lincoln again had the confidence to know that no one had expectations of him changing his routines up to such an extreme degree. Because of that, those three words spoken by Lori during that time he wanted to impress Stella for the first time rang truer that ever: "Just be you"._

* * *

Dinner had come and gone, and thankfully this time around, Lincoln did not space out like before. He did manage to keep enough focus to eat and take in the occasional small talk. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary based on how he presented himself and in a strange sense, thinking back to the aftermath of the whole "predictability" installment of his life actually left a more positive impression on him than before. In a way, he was beginning to understand what was causing his space out episodes, but for now he wasn't going to think about it further due to a previously scheduled activity he was going to partake in.

Following some assisting with doing the dishes, Lincoln was leaving the kitchen and just as he began traveling up the stairs, he felt his shoulder being touched. Looking back over, he saw Luna behind him.

"Hey, bro, ready for a little acoustic jammin' and practice?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure I am, Luna." He responded, "I was on my way thinking you were already upstairs, but here you are instead. Just let me grab the guitar that you handed down to me and I'll be right over."

Luna grinned amusingly, "You know, dude, it is _your_ guitar and has been for a while now. No need to word it like that."

"Yeah, maybe not, but I don't think there's anything wrong with referencing who was kind enough to hand it down to me in the first place." Lincoln opined, now giving his sister a return pat to her shoulder.

Sharing a grin of his own with Luna, Lincoln resumed going upstairs and into his room where he retrieved the guitar in question and the pick that went along with it. By the time he arrived at Luna and Luan's room, Luna had all her own acoustic setup prepped up while she took up seating in one of the beanbag chairs and joined alongside her.

"Oh, before we get going, I'll say right now that I won't bring up what happened earlier in the kitchen or at the meeting if you don't want me to, Linc." Luna said, "Don't want any messy vibes or unneeded drama bringing down what we do."

"Ah...okay, thanks, Luna." Lincoln said, albeit more surprised than relieved.

Nevertheless, without much further delay, the two began their little private acoustic session. It began with a simple tune up, but even that was providing some challenges for Lincoln. Even that had some awkwardness and things didn't necessarily get that much better as time rolled on. Though he didn't want to admit it out loud, his troubles from earlier in the day may have been throwing him off his game. Eventually, he groaned in frustration and put his guitar to the side.

"Ugh...you'd think after the handful of times I've tried my hand at this that I'd get the basics down at least." Lincoln grumbled, turning to look at his sister, "I'm sorry, Luna, but no matter what I do, I don't think I can get the hang of it."

Luna put her own guitar aside and reached over to place her arm around him, "Hey, no need to rough yourself up, bro. Like you've told me this afternoon and before, I don't expect you to take this up to reach my level or to anything like and frankly, I never thought you would even try to take it up in the first place. As I've said in the past, the only reason I ever gave you that guitar in the first place was as an apology for my own irresponsibility of handing down my old broken down axe."

Lincoln sighed, "Yeah, but still, I at the very least thought I should give it a try in return for those efforts of yours. On the other hand, it does also make it hypocritical of me in sense because I don't get use of any other of the hand-me-downs, so why would I put much disproportionate use into the guitar? It'd almost look like I'm playing a little bit of favoritism towards you, which I hate to ever give the impression of doing, because I don't favor any sister of mine over the others. Plus, there's..."

That thought would be interrupted when Luan suddenly opened the door and made her presence known.

"Uh, ever heard of knocking, brah?" Luna questioned.

"What? This is my room, too, you know. I assumed that I can come and go as I please even if somebody else other than you is in here." Luan replied curtly, though her cheery demeanor did return, "But anyway, you know what time it is?"

"Unfortunately..." Luna said with a roll of her eyes.

"Wait, what's going on?" Lincoln asked.

"Oh, well, Luna promised me she would listen in to some new material of mine that I've come up with. If you like, you can stick around as well, Lincoln." Luan suggested.

"Um...sure, I guess. Don't really have much else planned, so why not?" Lincoln said, before turning again to Luna, "I mean, if you're okay with it, cutting our session short and all."

"Ah, it's all good, dude." Luna said, then she leaned closer to him and continued speaking aside, "Thought I won't blame you in the slightest if you decide to split at any point. These little bits that Luan does can really be hit or miss."

Stifling a chuckle, Lincoln turned his attention to Luan as did Luna while their sister got onto the miniature stage located at the upper right corner of the room.

"Good evening, lady and germ, hope you are ready for a _clean_ act that will _wipe_ you off your seats with laughter!" Luan began with, "Get it? Anyway..."

As Lincoln sat back with Luna and watched Luan's performance, another thought came to mind. Specifically, it involved both of the sisters in question he was spending time with at the moment, though it wasn't exactly the finest hour of theirs. In hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but in that moment in time, it remains one of the most baffling of his life, especially knowing how generally kind to him Luna and Luan are. But at least they did sit down and try to work things out…

* * *

_As dusk slowly transformed to night, Lori was just about finished with moving back into the house. Her choice of moving into the garage from the day before didn't not go as smoothly as she believed. Turns out that being around her siblings often, the very thing that initially caused her move in the first place, was something she missed terribly and after a botched plan to have Mr. Grouse crash into said garage went nowhere so she could have an indirect excuse to move back in, she finally confessed to missing everyone and was welcomed back barely even a full day into the whole experiment._

_Besides herself, Lori also had the assistance of Lynn, Lincoln and Lana bringing her things back into her room at the moment._

" _All right, thanks, you guys. I think I can handle everything from here." She said._

" _Anytime, sis!" Lana said before leaving._

" _Yeah, this made for something of a solid workout, too." Lynn added as she too exited, stretching out her arms._

_While her two sisters were gone, Lincoln however stuck behind, insisting to Lori that he wanted to keep continue assisting in unpacking and putting everything back. But in that time, Lori couldn't help but notice something looked off with him to the point she wanted to ask him._

" _Hey, is there something wrong, Lincoln?" She asked._

" _Huh?" Lincoln muttered, looking up to her, "Oh, not really..."_

" _You sure?"_

" _Yes, I'm fine, Lori! There's nothing wrong!"_

_Lori shook her head and sighed, "Lincoln, if there's anything I've known about you in all eleven years of your existence, it's whenever you insist there's nothing wrong, that's usually a telltale sign that there is literally in fact something wrong. So, please, don't give this 'I'm fine' charade and tell me if there something's up."_

_Lincoln let out a sigh of his own. He probably knew better than giving out even the slightest, most simple signs that something was bothering him and trying to walk it back. It wouldn't exactly fly past his oldest sister and then again, he secretly chose to stick around to help her out some more as an excuse to possibly tell Lori about a certain minor incident that occurred just before she moved back in. Ultimately, he relented._

" _Okay, but honestly, it's nothing. Certainly not something that should bother me that much." He conceded._

" _Well, no matter what it is, you can tell me." Lori said._

" _Yeah, but..."_

" _No buts, Lincoln. Come on, let's put aside some of this work for a moment and talk about what's getting under your skin."_

_With that, Lori sat down on her bed and gestured to Lincoln that he come join her. He did after a moment of hesitation and he sighed again._

" _Lori, I insist this isn't something that should get to me that much at all..." He said._

" _It's all right." Lori assured, "Take your time if you need to before saying anything."_

_Lincoln would very much do just that and after a pair of false starts, he leaned over and whispered something to Lori. Her eyes widened upon him finishing his concern._

" _Wait...they did what?!"_

_Meanwhile, Luna and Luan were relaxing in the living room, much like they were just under an hour ago, only for their tranquility to be rocked something fierce._

" _Luna! Luan! Get up here right now!" Lori s_ _houted_ _._

" _Yikes, what could that be about?" Luan wondered with a hint of fear._

" _You got me, brah." Luna said just as confused, "I wouldn't know..."_

" _I MEAN IT! GET UP HERE BEFORE I LITERALLY DRAG THE BOTH OF YOU MYSELF!"_

_Following that even more enraged demand, the rocker and the jester didn't wait one second further and obeyed. They bounded up the stairs and arrived at the doorway of their oldest sister's bedroom._

" _Uh...what's up, dude?" Luna nervously asked.._

_Lori didn't say much, other than ushering both her sisters inside where they also saw Lincoln present._

" _Lincoln? Why are..." Luan tried getting out._

" _Am I understanding this right, you guys?" Lori interrupted, coming off much more coolly than before, "Did you threaten Lincoln while I was away?"_

_Both Luna and Luan gasped, but for the briefest of moments they lost whatever fear they had and narrowed their gazes to Lincoln._

" _Did you snitch on us, bro?" Luna wondered i_ _rritably_ _._

" _Yeah, you just had to be a pig and squeal, right?" Luan added, laughing for a moment, "Get it? But seriously, what gives?"_

" _Hey, would you lay off of him?" Lori demanded, "Lincoln did not snitch on you guys, and even if he did, that doesn't matter. I simply asked if something was bothering him and ultimately coaxed it out of him. Now again, did you threaten him all over something really stupid about Mr. Coconuts?"_

_Luan didn't take kindly to that, "Hey, it's not stupid at all! Mr. Coconuts is my soulmate, you know?"_

_Lori rolled her eyes and groaned, "Luan, you are talking about an inanimate wooden pu_ _ppet_ _here. Calling him your soulmate is literally quite creepy. Now for the third time, did you two threaten Lincoln or not?"_

" _Well, uh..." Luna uttered, struggling to find the right defense, "Why does it matter you to anyway, Lori?_ _Like you are one to complain with your threats of turning dudes into human pretzels!"_

" _Okay, first of all, I never followed through with those because I know that's a physical impossibility, and before you even think about bringing up the whole 'worst sister ever' incident involving Lincoln, I did actually talk things over with him instead." Lori said, "And secondly, that sounded like an admission of guilt, so..."_

" _All right, fine, we admit it!" Luan cut off her sister huffily and likely cracking under pressure, "We did threaten Lincoln, but..."_

" _No, don't try to make excuses! I should..." Lori began saying, but stopped herself short and took a deep breath, "You know, I think it's best that the three of you should try talking it over among yourselves. I really do need to get back to work in putting my things away."_

_Feeling like she said all she could, Lori motioned her siblings to leave her room and as they did,_ _Luna and Luan brought an uneasy Lincoln with them to their room. He sat down on Luan's bed while they joined alongside between him._

_For a little while, awkward silence held firm until finally they tried working things out._

" _All right, bro..." Luna said following a sigh, "We probably shouldn't have done what we did and..."_

" _No, wait, I get it, Luna..." Lincoln spoke up, "It's okay and I should not make to big of a fuss over it and..."_

_Luan put a hand on her brother's shoulder, "No, it's not okay, Lincoln. There's no reason for us to have so casually threatened you._ _I never should have dragged you into a dispute that only concerned me and Luna, so in that sense this is pretty much my fault."_

" _Well...at least you weren't the one who attempted to clean his clock at first, so maybe I'm the one who's really to blame." Luna pointed out._

_Luan shook her head, "No, I did the worst thing for all but suggesting through Mr. Coconuts that he should be hit with a baseball bat, so..."_

" _Guys, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Lincoln interjected._

_Luna and Luan's attention was diverted back to Lincoln as he sighed._

" _Look, I don't hold anything against you for what happened and I don't want either of you to one up the other as to who is more to blame." He continued, "Yet at the same time, I just don't get why that whole incident even happened in the first place."_

" _You got me on that front."_ _Luna admitted, "But like Luan said, that shouldn't have happened at all and in any event, I'm sorry, Lincoln."_

" _Yeah, I'm sorry, too..." Luan added with a nod, then something occurred to her, "Though I have to say that maybe Lori not being around at that moment may have something to do with how things played out."_

" _You know, there could be something to that. I mean, there's some pretty dark implications behind that suggesting we could get away with doing gnarly things like threatening to deck you if she weren't around, bro." Luna_ _said, "That, or I was too proud to admit that maybe one of my fog machines really did mess up Mr. Coconuts' face. Either way, nothing excused what we attempted to do and once again, we're really sorry."_

_To encapsulate everything, both Luna and Luan shifted closer to Lincoln and encircled him in a hug between them, which he returned on his end as he smiled._

" _Thanks, you guys. Again, I don't hold anything against you two, but I appreciate the apologies anyway." Lincoln said._

* * *

Lincoln flashed a smile, both from the conclusion of that memory and as Luan had wrapped up her comedy set. He managed to multitask in reminiscence and paying attention to his sister as well, a marked improvement compared to how easily spaced out he got multiple times in the day. Like he thought to himself before, he figured out why he's been acting the way he had been and soon enough, he wanted to share with everyone that theory, though it would wait for just a brief moment.

"So, what did you guys think of that?" Luan asked.

"All right, I'll give this one to you, dude. It was decent enough." Luna said, turning to her brother, "How about you, Linc?"

"Oh, uh, I'd say it was fine." Lincoln said, admittedly a bit scattershot, "Actually, can you both hang on for a second?"

He stood up and stepped out of Luna and Luan's room, leaving those very sisters confused as to what he was planning.

Lincoln made it halfway down the stairs and saw the remainder of his sisters all conveniently sitting together in the living room.

"Hey, you guys, do you mind if I convene an impromptu sibling meeting? It's about what happened earlier in the day." He requested.

Typically, if a meeting of any sort was to be held with little advance notice, no one would have been really enthused and think it might not be truly worth it. But the second Lincoln mentioned what had happened before, it drew his sisters' immediate attention.

As everyone gathered inside Lori and Leni's room for the second time of the day, the sisters could hardly wait as to what their lone brother had to say. They tried their best since the afternoon in respecting his wishes by not bothering him about the earlier events, so the fact he was actually going to opine about it himself did cause a good deal of relief and anticipation.

"Okay, everyone, I believe I owe you all something of an apology. I'm sorry for the way the way I acted during the last meeting." Lincoln said, "Between that and how I've spaced out on some of you guys before that, I likely caused a little too much worry within and I shouldn't have done that."

Though he was directing that statement to everyone, Lincoln then turned his gaze over to his second oldest sister.

"And Leni, I feel like I owe you a special apology specifically. I was particularly harsh toward you during that moment when you attempted in talking to me earlier. Yes, I still think what's been going on with me at the time wasn't that big of a deal, but I didn't need to react in the way I did, so for that, I'm sorry."

Leni went up to Lincoln and knelt down to him, "Aw, it's okay. But honestly, Lincoln, _something_ has be upsetting you, though. Even if you say it's not a big deal, I bet deep down it might be and we want to know what it is if you're comfortable telling us."

"Yeah, I'm still confused about what Luna said earlier about something to do with you thinking back to memories with us. What is that about, Lincoln?" Lynn inquired.

"Well, you're about to find out..." Lincoln responded.

He sighed, took a few seconds to gather his thoughts and then was ready to divulge into everything.

"All day long, I've been recalling certain recent events of ours, and with the one exception being that time I mistakenly thought I was seen as too predictable, every other one highlight some kind of divide, fight or argument between us. These have included when we got kicked out of the grocery store due to us fighting over my Zombie Bran, the time I "borrowed"...okay, _stole_ Lynn's bike and caused confusion about me misunderstanding what hand-me-downs really are all about, that really unneeded instance of me badmouthing your anniversary gifts to Mom and Dad, the time I became a complete snob to you all after winning that ride in the limo, the whole fiasco regarding the Sadie Hawkins Dance, the disaster known as the "friend card" and the one I just thought about before this meeting, when Luna and Luan shockingly threatened me when I was dragged into a dispute of theirs just before Lori moved back in the house from the garage."

Having been reminded of that latter one, Luna and Luan frowned, looking around and shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Likewise, the rest of the sisters shared looks of concern and regret among themselves and to Lincoln for all those prior instances. Then, he resumed speaking.

"But here's the strange thing. What I was really remembering more so than those events in particular was instead what occurred in the aftermath, and compared to how rough those moments in our lives were, the aftermaths were so much better because of how we reconciled and worked things out. I guess what was bothering me and making me space out on you guys a few times was just knowing how many stupid scuffles and squabbles we get into, be it because of me, any of you or often both sides. But I shouldn't have let it get to me that badly in the first place, because like I said, we always find ways to make it up with each other and...well, that's one of the reasons why I love each and every one of you."

Without giving it another thought, Lincoln opened up his arms to signal an initiation for a group hug with his sisters, which they more than happily obliged with all smiles between them.

"Well, thanks for telling us everything, Lincoln." Lori said, "I can safely speak for everyone that we're relieved that it wasn't something a lot more serious than that."

Lincoln laughed a little, "Same here and again, I'm sorry for worrying you a little too much. Also, Leni told me this earlier and I'll say to you all now. If there truly is something really bothering me or there's some kind of problem in my life, I know that this present company will be the first I come to."

Touched by those words, the sisters held their only brother just that little bit more firmer and lovingly before they finally let go.

Roughly another hour later, most everybody was making preparations for or were about to head off for bed, and Lincoln was no different. His bathroom routines taken care of and his pajamas on, he headed into his room for the night, but something came to mind. He looked under his bed and reached for something. Smiling, he sat down on his bed with the item at hand, in this case being an old photo album of childhood memories. It had become one of his most treasures possessions, especially after the horror of having accidentally deleting most of his childhood photos, not to mention the heartfelt discussion he had with some of his sisters that lead to this amazing discovery…

* * *

_The Loud house was unusually more quiet that it typically is one afternoon. That was due to Lincoln and his older sisters holding things down while their parents and younger sisters were away for a few hours._

_Everyone was in their respective rooms doing whatever it is to keep themselves occupied, but Lincoln was feeling in the mood for a snack. He left his room, trekked down the stairs and arrived at the kitchen._

" _Okay, now where are those cookies..."_

_He scanned around, but did not see the jar of which such dessert edibles right away, which meant one thing._

" _Of course..."_

_Realizing they're up inside on_ _e_ _of the cupboards, Lincoln got the_ _step stool and climbed up onto the counter. He opened up the cupboard and saw the cookie jar inside, smiling as he was about to claim the spoils within._

" _Whew...at least this time I didn't..."_

_Whatever he was about to say was cut off when Lincoln suddenly started teetering backwards until he lost his balance and slammed hard back first onto the kitchen floor. The impact and the pain-filled groan following that caused a commotion upstairs._

" _Hey, what was that?"_

" _I don't know. Hey, Lincoln, did you hear..."_

" _Wait! It sounded like it came from the kitchen."_

_Next, a rumbling coming down the stairs ensued as_ _Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn came into the kitchen to see Lincoln laid out on the floor, a collective gasp shared between them._

" _Lincoln!"_

_The grogginess caused by the fall made it sort of hard for Lincoln to hear or respond to the concerns coming from each of his older sisters. All he could sense_ _next_ _was the feeling of_ _him_ _lifted up and carried over to the_ _living room before being placed on the couch._

" _Hey, give him some space, guys."_

_After close to a minute, Lincoln finally regained enough of his sense and he sat on up and see all five of his older sisters standing in front of him looking at him concernedly._

" _Are you okay, Lincoln?" Leni asked him, "Do you need anything?"_

" _No...I think I'm good." Lincoln responded, grunting and rubbing the back of his head._

" _It looked like you took a serious tumble there, bro. What the heck happened?" Luna wondered._

_Lincoln sighed lightly, "Well, if you absolutely need to know, I was attempting to get some cookies when I somehow lost my balance and then you found me all laid out. But hey, could've been worse, right? At least I didn't get my pants caught in the knob of the cupboard this time like in that memory Lori felt the need to bring up not too long ago."_

_He chuckled for a second, but none of his sisters shared a similar humorous bent, aside from the most obvious one who decided to give it her best shot._

" _Well, if you did, it certainly would bring new meaning to you hanging out!" Luan said, laughing just briefly, "Get it? But seriously, that might've ended worse for you in a way, Lincoln. Had that happened, you could've fallen at an odd angle and landed on straight on your head, not to mention losing your pants or even your underwear depending on how you would be caught, adding some r_ _eal_ _embarrassment on top of a potentially_ _serious injury."_

" _Yeah, and I doubt the world would be prepared to see your...ahem,_ _goalpost and_ _uprights, would that_ _have_ _happen_ _ed_ _." Lynn_ _added, smirking amusingly._

" _Uh, Lynn, that's probably something we literally didn't need to hear or be brought up." Lori told her younger sister, then looked back at their brother, "But since you did bring up that memory, there was something we did want to talk to you about, Lincoln, assuming you're okay enough to discuss it."_

_Lincoln grunted in pain again, but he nodded, "I think so. What is it about exactly?"_

_When they heard their little brother affirm he's ready, the sisters gathered along with him on the couch._

" _Well, we've been kind of thinking back to when you said that your childhood pics got s_ _crapped by accident and it got us to wondering why you never mentioned that to us in the first place right before we all went to the mall that day." Luna curiously inquired._

" _Um...well, honestly, I don't have a clue." Lincoln replied, taking a second to mull that over further, "My mind may have been in a different place, and maybe thinking about it further, if you guys had choice between going shopping or helping me with the laboriou_ _s_ _and improbable task of recreating a bunch of those photos, you pretty much made it clear what was more important."_

_Whether Lincoln meant to say that to intentionally make his sisters feel guilty or if that's really how he saw things from his perspective, it did_ _otherwise make them feel more sympathy for him than when they originally found him and Clyde in the backyard trying to recreate some of those pictures at the time._

" _Maybe we were more interest_ _ed_ _in shopping at the time, but I think we could all agree that if you did say something_ _sooner_ _, we might've reconsidered and found some other way to help out." Lynn_ _said._

_Lori nodded, "Perhaps, but regardless, we didn't mean to make it sound like we didn't care about your predicament at that moment or afterwards. Losing all your photos from your childhood is a pretty scary feeling. But on a related note, there is something else we wanted to bring up_ _with you_ _, Lincoln. Or make that, something we want to show you. Wait here, I'll be right back."_

_She stood up and headed upstairs, while Lincoln looked on confused. He looked back to his other older sisters, each of which had grins on their faces. He would ask them what's going on, but he chose hold out for the moment._

_Just a few seconds later, Lori returned while carrying something under her arm._

" _What is that you have there, Lori?" Lincoln asked._

" _Something that I guarantee you'll literally love." Lori answered with a confident smirk._

_She sat back down with her present siblings, then she held out what she brought with her._

" _It looks like a…photo album?" Lincoln said sounding unsure._

" _That's because it is indeed one." Lori confirmed to him, "You see, Lincoln, yesterday after we thought about how sad it must've been losing all your photos and us feeling more guilty about it than before, we decided to do a search around the attic and after a while, we found this. We didn't show you this the other day because we wanted to wait until the right time came, and I supposed now is as good as any other."_

_L_ _ori handed the photo album to Lincoln and encouraged him to open it up. He followed such a recommendation with some eagerness and looked within. Right away,_ _he was very happy at what he was seeing._

" _Wow, this has a bunch of photos from my earlier years!" Lincoln said very happily._

" _Actually, it's an album of nothing but pics of when you were a much littler dude, Linc, plus with us, too." Luna told him._

" _Really?" Lincoln said, getting a big smile on his face while he looked at the photos._

" _Yeah! Oh, you were such a cutie when you were little!" Leni_ _jubilantly said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek, "And you still are and always will be."_

_A blush came across Lincoln's face as he chuckled in slight embarrassment. In any event, he resumed looking through the photos with his sisters. To his amazement, a couple of them included some of the very ones that were accidentally deleted, such as the one were Lori was feeding him ice cream for the first and him taking a bath with Lynn._

" _Wow...just look at all these..." Lincoln said, shaking his head in astonishment as flipped through some of the pages._

_At one point, there was one picture that caught his attention in particular._

" _Hey, this one...it...it looks like you're teaching me to walk?"_

" _Yes,_ _indeed._ _" Lori answered, "If I remember correctly, Mom and Dad had been trying their hand at it for a while before and just after you turned one year old, but nothing seemed to work. So finally, we decided to step in and help out. As you can see, I was holding on to your hands to keep you steady while everyone else was on the couch cheering and encouraging you on. Then, I let go and all of a sudden, you toddled right on over to Mom and Dad like it was nothing!"_

" _Whoa, really?" Lincoln said, quite surprised to learn that part._

" _Uh-huh, but what we probably didn't realize at the time was that we may have inadvertently created something of a real troublesome baby brother after that moment." Luan responded humorously._

_Lincoln turned his head to the side, "Wait, what do you mean by that, Luan?"_

_Lori chuckled, "Well, she's not entirely wrong there, Lincoln. It's like once you could walk on your own without any assistance, nothing was off limits to you. I can recall one very...we'll say peculiar instance where you ran roughshod across the ground floor of the house. I think you about one and a half by that point."_

" _Oh, wasn't that the time when he raided the fridge and gotten a hold of some_ _ice cream that fell onto the floor?" Luna asked, smiling and chortling on her end._

" _I think you're right, Luna." Lori said, chuckling even more while she continued addressing Lincoln, "You were covered literally head to toe and you started tracking ice cream all around while all of us tried to get you, but somehow you were able to evade us until Mom and Dad finally came along. Needless to say, they weren't pleased with the situation and we spent the better part of that afternoon cleaning up after you."_

_The sisters all shared a series of laughs, while Lincoln joined in with more intermittent chuckles._

" _Heh...that must have been something." He added._

" _Yeah, and it didn't really get much better by the time you were two, bro." Luna_ _said, tousling around his hair, "You really became a rambunctious little dude by then."_

" _A really, really cute one, though! But yeah, you did cause a little bit of trouble then, Linky." Leni admitted, but mostly with a lighthearted nature._

" _Yep, you did more of the same...and sometimes you did so while you were naked, too. Guess once you knew how to take your own clothes off you saw it as some freeing sensation, and it took some time for you to understand the purpose of clothing again." Lori added,_ _leading to another series of laughter from her sisters._

_Lincoln smiled, shaking his head in disbelief, "Gee...was I really that much of a handful back then? If so, and I do mean this purely in all good fun, but I guess I'm sorry for that."_

" _Ah, we understand." Lynn said, jabbing his shoulder playfully, "You were getting used to everything, I suppose. But hey, it's not like you were that way all the time and once you were three years old, you became much better behaved and that's when you really started to become the great little bro we've come to love and admire since then."_

_The smile on Lincoln's face got a little bigger as he resumed perusing the pictures in the album. By the time he reached the end containing the most recent photos in the collection, he realized something. They were from a birthday party of his, but not just any ordinary one._

" _Whoa, these are from my seventh birthday!" He exclaimed._

_That was the very same birthday where he struggled before in trying to remember anything from. He did get a small reminder of it from Lori about a magician's act from that day, but now having visual remembrances on top of that made for_ _such a relief._

_Soon after, Lincoln closed the album and hugged it close to his chest, something his sisters found so heartwarming. Yet the mood changed when they witnessed him closing his eyes, sniffling and letting a few tears escape downward._

" _Aw, please don't_ _cry, Lincoln." Luan said worriedly._

" _Yeah, this shouldn't be a time for you to be_ _blue, little bro." Luna added, rubbing his shoulder softly._

" _I know, and I'm sorry..." Lincoln_ _said quietly while quivering, "It's just that I'm so happy that the Lincoln Library as I called it wasn't totally wiped out and that there's something, anything at all, from my childhood that's been preserved."_

_He placed the album on his lap, opened his eyes and tried in wiping some of tears off his face._

" _Hey, um...you guys won't mind if I held on to his for myself would you?" He asked them, "I know that photo albums are meant for everyone and anyone in the family, but..."_

_Lori placed a hand on Lincoln's head and grinned, "Well, it is largely made up of your pictures and after having lost all those ones on the computer, I don't think we have any objections to that. You deserve it."_

_Delighted to hear that answer, Lincoln put the album aside on the coffee table so he could hug Lori in thanks. She did the same for him and in turn, their sisters also joined in to form a tender group hug._

" _Thank you for finding this for me, you guys. This means so much to me." Lincoln stated gratefully._

" _Anytime, Linc."_ _Lynn said._

" _And you mean so much to us, too." Leni added warmly._

* * *

Sighing contently, Lincoln was all smiles. Looking over this photo album always made him feel good and more so today after causing unneeded distress from himself and his sisters. He put aside the album for a moment when he heard his bedroom door being lightly knocked on.

"Who is it?" Lincoln asked.

"It's just me, Lincoln. Can I come in for a quick moment?"

"Oh...I guess so, yeah."

The door opened and Lori showed herself inside, closing the door behind her.

"What's going on, Lori?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, I was stopping on by each room wishing everybody good night, something that I literally haven't done for a long time and saved coming to you for last." Lori explained as she took a seat next to her brother, "But in reality, I think I was only doing that just so I can have an excuse to have one last talk with you."

"About what?" Lincoln asked.

"Just simply wanted to see if you're still doing okay after today." Lori answered, "I know you're probably sick of hearing that, but hey, I'm big sister and oldest one at that, and checking up on you is one of my biggest responsibilities."

"Yeah, I'm doing good, Lori, thanks." Lincoln assured her.

Lori smiled while reaching over and wrapped her arm around him. As she did that, she also noticed what was next to him.

"Oh, were you looking at that photo album of yours just now?" She asked.

Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, just got done with it right as you were coming in. Always nice to get a look at it here and there."

"It must be nice to do that." Lori said simply in return.

"Yes, it is." Lincoln added, "Looking back over it and because of the events of today, I've learned that it's best to block out any bad memories and focus on the good ones, including the times whenever we make up after such bad ones."

Lori brought him a little closer to her, "Got to admire that way of thinking, Lincoln. Sure, there have been quite a few not so good times between us and our sisters, but the quantity and quality of the great ones far outweigh those and that's what is literally most important. In fact, I've got a sweet little memory I want to share with you right now."

Lincoln's instinct was that she was going to verbally share something with him, but instead she pulled him onto her lap and hugged him close to her. It took him by surprise, but in a good way and he nonetheless laughed.

"You know, there may be a time where I might be too old for something like this." Lincoln told his sister, "But I also don't want that time to be coming anytime soon, certainly not for another few years."

He hugged her back as smiled, all while she tightened her own grip and kissed him on the top of his head.

"Okay, I think it's about time I let you get some sleep." Lori said following some more time elapsing.

She let go of her brother and allowed him to get under the covers. Once he did, she stood up, came by his side and this time gave his cheek a brief little kiss.

"Good night, Lincoln." Lori whispered to him sweetly.

"Good night, Lori. Here's to making more memorable memories between us and everyone else." Lincoln said back with a sleepy grin.

Lori chuckled and patted his head before leaving his room and allowing him start getting to sleep. There were indeed lots more memories to be made between Lincoln and his sisters, including the older ones with whom he had plenty of to begin with and counting, and like he said to Lori just now, it's best to focus and remember on the good ones, because those are the ones which matter the most and help create and maintain all the close bonds he shares with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we did it, everyone. Yes, we did it. While I may have put in all the work, you did your part in sticking with this story, too in the near two months it took to complete. So much for when I suggested in the author's notes of "Melodious Juncture" that this could've been done by early February. Then again, like I said in the previous chapter, it's better to take my time in making sure a good product is finished instead of holding firm to some vague time frame of completion. And generally speaking, this story became a bigger commitment than I anticipated, especially after including this three-part story arc, which made it all the more satisfying one it was finally done. A good feeling that certainly is.
> 
> A couple of other thoughts while I'm at it. You may have noticed that I didn't use any episodes from season 4 in this story and there are a couple of reasons for that. One, that season obviously is still going and two, I'm actually wanting to do another series like this for episodes from that season, but with a couple of differences. First, I don't know if I'll reuse the flashback format like I have used for this one and the other thing is that I probably won't strictly adhere to the "Lincoln and older sisters" formula that dominated this story. So there's that to look forward to a few months down the line once season 4 wraps up.
> 
> And with that, I want to thank every single person who's given this story even a passing glance and as always, I'll see you all again in the very near future.


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